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Open Mic Highlights
• “A line of iambic pentameter is a line of iambic pentameter” – from Bobby’s triple sonnet
• Zeke’s poem about the gratitude of still being alive, and an update on his former desire to be a poet that other poets talk about
• “How could you forget the moment before your first sin?” – Michelle
• A surprise group piece from Edie & Amy, featuring stage wandering and the distance between friends who aspire to find the time to meet up
• Hunter on “the entropy of a promise”, and Will S going meta about our alternate Wednesday venue for the week (shout out to The Foundry, who let us use their space on short notice!)
• The return to the mic of long-time staff/bartender Adam Stone, who read two excellent short poems, one about the head and the heart (“The heart wears a t-shirt and shorts in a blizzard”) and one titled “Instead of Linked In, I scroll through Tik Tok looking for work”
• “I only eat one food at a time, that already too many version of reality” – March Penn
• Myles’ raw and poignant tale of cab ride in Minneapolis and a failed attempt to visit the Renee Good memorial
Feature
Our feature was JeFF Stumpo, who brought an uninterrupted set of poems from his new book, “these are the waterfalls in my head”. JeFF gave a detailed introduction to himself and his poem suite, discussing his experience with mental illness, schizophrenia, and PTSD, and how he ended up writing down his dreams and nightmares as a way to extract them from himself. He told the audience to take a deep breath between each poem instead of clapping, and then proceeded to deliver one of the more singular features we’ve had in awhile. Each poem began with “Tonight you are ______” and described seemingly impossible sounding scenarios involving both violence and light, with family members showing up in a lyrical cloth of dream logic. Some of the opening lines of the highlights included “Tonight you are a security camera / you want to stop looking”, “Tonight you are the 10th child of a 10th child”, “and “Tonight, you are in the right body”. Thank you JeFF!
Coming Up This Wednesday
Tonight, besides our normal extended mic, we will have an open SPEED SLAM! You will need three poems that are 1 minute long. The winner gets $75 (!) and the top 2 qualify for the 2027 Boston Poetry Team Selection Slam.
See you later! 🐊
– MFG 🚪
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