Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On July 3rd, Stone Soup welcomes back poet Richard Cambridge for a special performance that recognizes the Fourth of July holiday in a less common fashion, as is indicative in the sample poem below.
Richard Cambridge's poetry and theater productions address controversial themes on the American political landscape. His poetry has appeared in The Paterson Literary Review, Heartland Journal, Asheville Poetry Review and others. His awards include The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize and he was a finalist for a residency at the Fine Arts Work Shop in Provincetown, MA. He is a long-time resident of Cambridge, MA where he curates the Poets’ Theater at Club Passim, and helps run Squawk! a weekly open mic coffeehouse in Harvard Square. He was a member of the Boston Slam team that won the championship in 1992, and in 1997 won the individual Master’s Slam at the National Poetry Slam. In 2003 he received the Cambridge Peace and Justice Award for the contributions of his art and activism.
After the London bombings, an NPR commentator asked the question:
Is this what the future holds? Will we have to endure this like bad weather?
Bad Weather
Our language comes from Arabic
There’s a bin-Laden
For every letter of the alphabet
The forecast today
Is Bad Weather
A cluster bomb
in Copley Square
A suicide bomber
At Downtown Crossing
What doesn’t rain from above
Can’t be protected from with an umbrella
It’s going to be a Nuclear Day
Mushrooms exploding in the corners of Everywhere
Lunch appointments completely ruined
A whole life’s work blown to bits
My parents no longer exist
In Rochester
There’s a fingernail left
Of a friend from Montana
What we need is
HOMELAND SECURITY
A T-Shirt says
Fighting Terrorism since 1492
Depicting four Native American warriors
Rifles cocked
What goes around
Becomes a tornado
Two-fifty for a coffee and donut
Two-fifty for a gallon of gas
The president grins
With a moustache of oil
Got Democracy
Wasn’t it Sadaam who took down the towers
The forecast today is Bad Weather
It’s always easier to believe a lie
--Richard Cambridge
Click here for the Squawk! website.
Click here for Club Passim's website.
