Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 20th, 2025

Send us feedback anonymously or via email

Open Mic Highlights

If you were at the show last week, you may have heard my slot on the open mic, where I read haiku about each poem that was read before me that night! Here they are for the sake of posterity.

Adam M

what to do with this
poetry journal i just found:
write a haiku

Lou C

i’m going to spit a little
watch out
it’s intensely joyful

Alex Kist

welcoming a tear
for each question i have about love
welcome home

[s.m.] DECKER

roger’s got no head
it’s an interlocking rollercoaster
instead

Speros P

we never wanted
indigo apples
indigo apples stone still

Tyler B

nine times eight times
seven times six times five times
four times three times two one

Edie

happy spelled with backwards p’s
stained
with the comfort of generations

Lauren

what if you were dead
let me tell you a cold hard fact:
you were hit by a bus

Bailey

queer
queer
queer
queer meat suit with the check engine light flashing queer
queer
queer
queer

Mariana

last stop
called at every station—
plausible deniability

Cheyanne

durability of concrete
white cement mold
what is a birthplace?

Kaitie D

gluten-free jesus will not save me so i don’t say anything about how long a haiku should be just do you want to die or kill the part of you that’s hurting? anyway my dad says some weird stuff

Donovan Beck

the light in the oldest lighthouse is still on
who is keeping it?
who

Isaiah

tomato / basil
coconut / lime
the fruit the follows grows the soil

Will S

normal’s hard to resist
surveillance capitalism
is normal

Otto Vock

poetry closes doors
i became an architect
to replace the doors

Mary S

can you believe in me
long enough
for me to finish this haiku

Aruna

holding hands with the divine
i told him nothing right
empty soul alight

Sue Savoy

to the long list of things
i can’t do anymore
you can add parties

Nick Roberts

here comes
cameras-out confidence men with
mosquito bites between both breasts

March Penn

there is a you inside a you
that is all body
falling towards truth

Brynna B

the kind of laugh
where you forgot to breathe:
too loud too proud too much joy

Briana Crockett

does a survivor’s haiku
sound like anger, broken glass,
or reciprocity?

Aparna

i think they only have
the unasked question in my heart
on the menu

Kai W

epiphanies lost in the “watch later” tab
migrate to me
in sleep

Amy Argentar

in two hundred feet
i want to keep on moving
while staying at home

Feature

We had a short (!) and beautiful feature from Jess Yuan this week. Jess gave us some unique persona poems voicing the dreams of a “project manager”, a poem about her long-distance relationship that was written while actually-travelling-the-long-distance on train, a four-part poem relating to the four stomachs of a cow (wild writing prompt alert!) and finished with a vulnerable poem involving secret languages and a refrain admitting “It’s true I don’t know anything about love / So you must not believe my poems”. The audience disagreed with the point, as they were keenly listening and enthusiastic throughout! Thanks Jess!

Coming Up This Wednesday

BPS presents a double feature: The touring poet KERM, and our 2nd community Night, showcasing poems in multiple languages! THERE ARE STILL SPOTS AVAILABLE FOR THE MULTILINGUAL MIC! SIGN UP AT tinyurl.com/MLNIGHT27 if you are interested!

Bio: KERM is a real presence in front of a mic. While he’s relatively new to sharing his words with the world, it’s hard to imagine him doing anything else. He currently resides in LA, but was raised in Nashville, Tennessee; Quincy, Massachusetts; and Attleboro, Massachusetts. His poetry is rooted in reflective storytelling, placing his audiences right beside him, as he time travels through memories oozing nostalgia, processed by a mind molded by comic books and hip-hop. He loves to write about the Black American experience. He loves to write personification poems. He’s finished writing his first poetry book and is currently in the process of getting it published.

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

Our upcoming features
First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions!
Sign up for our Newsletter