July 2nd: Stone Soup Presents A Reason to Listen



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On July 2nd, the California based poetry group A Reason to Listen will be visiting Stone Soup as part of their summer tour.

Over the past four years A Reason to Listen, Therese Keslin-FitzMaurice and Vanessa Pike-Vrtiak, have worked with poets in several forums, from the Accident Gallery to the Raven House, to build a thriving spoken word movement in Humboldt County. Their most recent achievement, Excavating the History of Love, an hour length performance piece combined spoken word, dance, music and live art on one stage. After a series of sold out performances, the local university invited the poets to speak and host workshops on campus. Pike and Keslin are currently publishing Excavating the History of Love and a collection of poetry entitled A Reason to Listen. This summer Keslin and Pike will tour the east coast to promote their new publications. A Reason to Listen recently received two grants acknowledging how inspirational their performances have been to the local community. A sample poem follows below.


After 48 hours of contemplation
by Vanessa Pike-Vrtiak and Therese Keslin-FitzMaurice

I am hurting.
Remembering when my pilot light was lit.
abruptly.
heart beat to tribal drums
(inside my chest)
ruby pastel blood running to my finger tips
the scent still lingers

i am only human

when i dance
alone.

abrasive.
unnoticed.
cut taste off my tongue
the smell of tulips now follows me.

i hid between bed sheets
lighting candles in the dark
licking love poems off my lips
hoping i could pilot kali’s ship
and beat tantric rhythms
over perineal knowledge,
(but alone, i know
i am only human.)

heat exchanged
beat boxed stares
and radiant smiles
a delicate conversation with a piano.

keys slipped soft caresses
between folded sheets of music
where circumcised instruments
played too hard.

I was reminded
about the love I was lacking
when his world collided with mine

he traveled through black and white jungles
braiding syncopated break beats
birthing bridges of rain and sun

telling the truth about the moon dust in my womb had never been so easy
prophet of the divine
i want to sun bathe inside you.

deep fragrant symphonies
i caught my breath too.

and touched the rough edges of fire

i tasted him.
for a moment in time.

wind painted cracks
across his lips,
sipping life lines and poems
out of forest speckled eyes

splashing his reflection on my face
as he blew butterflies
through the back of my skull
my essence grew wings
as i stared down the barrel
pressing matters on my temple
i could not escape myself.

my anger is a disease.

and this dis ease
shakes the bed i sleep in.

Does he know?
How we stand with vast oceans between us.
rotating Saturn’s rings around my wrists.
in place of time

what is my karmic responsibility?

the seaweed tangled with forbidden contact
and snow stained cheeks
if you bring me electricity again

will currents flow?
or am I in love with a poem?
a poem can’t brush the back of his palm against my cheek
a poem can’t fold triangles in bed
a poem can’t ride the rhythm of my beat
through the streets
and shake me out of my dreams
only my maker can.

yes, I carry jazz notes in my lungs if you want to stay and listen.
because..

I’ve got to start putting it simply. I am the poem.


Visit Reason to Listen's MySpace page.

June 25th: Doug Holder Returns



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On June 25th, Doug Holder will be returning to Stone Soup to celebrate the releasing of his two new chapbooks: No One Dies At The Au Bon Pain by Sunny Outside Press and Of All the Meals I Had Before from Cervena Barva Press.

Doug Holder was born In Manhattan on July 5, 1955. A small press activist,he founded the Ibbetson Street Press in the winter of 1998 in Somerville,Mass. He has published over 30 books of poetry of local and national poets and over 20 issues of the literary journal Ibbetson Street. Holder is aco-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival, and is the curator of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series in Newton, Mass. His interviews with contemporary poets are archived at the Harvard and Buffalo University libraries, as well as Poet's House in NYC. Holder's own articles and poetry have appeared in several anthologies including: Inside the Outside: AnAnthology of Avant-Garde American Poets (Presa Press) Greatest Hits: Twelve Years of Compost Magazine (Zephyr Press) America's Favorite Poems edited byRobert Pinsky. His work has appeared in such magazines as: Rattle, Doubletake, The Boston Globe Magazine, Poesy, Small Press Review, ArtwordQuarterly, Manifold (U.K.), The Café Review, the new renaissance and many others. He holds an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University.

A sample of Doug Holder's work.

Visit Doug Holder's blog.

June 18th: Marvyn Petrucci Features



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On June 18th, Stone Soup welcomes the return of former relocated Stone Soup regular Marvyn Petrucci.

Marvyn Petrucci, originally from Amesbury, Massachusetts, teaches in the English Department at Auburn University. He taught at UMass, Boston, and was twice an NEH Fellow before receiving his Ph.D from the University of Southern MIssissippi in 2000, where he won the Joan Johnson Poetry Award. His poetry has appeared in forty journals, including the Southern Humanities Review and the Black Warrior Review. He has also published half a dozen short stories and numerous feature articles and reviews.

June 11th: Abbott Ikeler



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On June 11, Stone Soup welcomes Abbott Ikeler, one Ibbetson Street Press' most recently published poets, as he reads from his new collection, Outpost.

Abbott Ikeler lives in Cumberland, RI and teaches at Emerson College in Boston. He writes poetry, memoirs and literary criticism, including a book published by Ohio State University Press on Thomas Carlyle, Puritan Temper and Transcendental Faith, and numerous articles on Dickens and Trollope. His poems have been published in The Concrete Wolf, The Somerville News, Dream International Quarterly, and Bagelbards Anthology, No. 2. A sample poem follows below.

Epiphanies

They happen on a subway platform
in the midst of mild debate,
hardly heated, on the merits of a film.
Or between courses at a restaurant
unrated by Michelin
over the indiscretions of a distant friend.
An old incompatibility
of taste or moral vision gathers
in an unremarkable moment in a quite prosaic spot
to a settled recognition on one side or the other
of a wall that can’t be climbed.
The rest—days or decades—is merest epilogue.

--Abbott Ikeler

Click here to order Abbott Ikeler's book.

June 4th: Michael Czarnecki Features



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 June 4th, Stone Soup welcomes visiting poet and publisher Michael Czarnecki.

Poet, oral memorist and small press publisher Michael Czarnecki has crafted his life and work around poetry. Author of several poetry collections inspired by nature, travel and ancient Asian poetry, he has operated FootHills Publishing in Upsate New York for over 20 years. With his family working alongside him at their rural homestead, he has published the work of hundreds of poets in chapbooks and anthologies. Czarnecki's own titles include Sea Smoke and Sand Dollars, Crisscross, Zoo Haiku and Twenty Days on Route 20. He teaches as a poet-in-residence and oral memorist at schools, colleges, libraries, museums and writers' organizations, and has been featured at more than 250 readings throughout the US. A sample poem follows below.


The Echo Of What Has Passed

T'ao Ch'ien would understand.
I sit drinking wine
chanting poems
dreaming of mountains.
Bills pile high at the door.
White hairs infiltrate my beard.
Daughter approaches womanhood.
Young son no longer crawls.
Late autumn, already snow
has covered the ground.
Sipping wine, I shiver
as a chill breeze
caresses me from behind.

--Michael Czarnecki


Click here to visit FootHills Publishing.

May 28th: Book Release Celebration with Ryk McIntyre



Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. Stone Soup's 36th anniversary celebration finishes this Monday, May 28th, with a book release party of Look! Up in the Sky!, an anthhology of comic book inspired poetry edited by Melissa Guillet and feature poet Ryk McIntyre.

Ryk McIntyre is a three-time National Poetry Slam Team member, as well as Co-host at The Cantab Poetry Reading. He has toured nationally and in Canada, opening for acts as varied as Andrei Codrescu Leon Redbone and Jim Carroll, as well as appearing as part of Lollapalooza 1994. He performed in "The Legends Of Slam" Showcase at NPS2006. He has been published in Short-Fuse- An Anthology Of New Fusion Poets, 100 Poets Against The New World Order, Nth Position Magazine and The Worcester Review. He is a known biped, and he has pretty blue eyes.

Visit the poet's Livejournal.

To order Look! Up in the Sky, click here.

Thank You, Billy Tuggle


Photo by Bill Perrault

On April 30th, due to Steve Manchester's illness Stone Soup would have been without a feature, had it not been to an unplanned but momentous visit by Chicago poet Bily Tuggle, who gave an amazing reading with little planning for the gathered audience.

Stone Soup thanks Billy Tuggle for his timely intervention and encourages visitors to this site to visit the links below.

Visit the poet's homepage.

Visit the poet's press.

May 21st: Jack McCarthy Featues

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 May 21st, Stone Soup has the honor of welcoming back local poetry icon Jack McCarthy, as he stops by the venue for his only Boston area performance as part of a new tour.

Jack McCarthy is a working guy from the Boston area who’s been writing poetry since the mid-60s. He’d been averaging about a poem a year until 1992-93, when two things happened. First, his new wife, Carol, blackmailed him into attending a workshop with Galway Kinnell; then he brought his daughter Annie, for her birthday, to the open mike at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square, Cambridge, hoping she’d get excited about poetry. Jack was the one who got hooked.

Since then he’s brought out Grace Notes, two chapbooks (Actual Grace Notes and Too Old to Make Excuses (But Still Young Enough to Make Love)), a 60-minute cassette tape (Poems for Hannah), and a CD (Breaking Down Outside a Gas Station). A major book, Say Goodnight, Grace Notes, was released in 2003 by EM Press to rave reviews. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including The Spoken Word Revolution.

Jack was a member of the Boston team at the 1996 National Poetry Slam, and was an engaging minor character in the feature film "Slamnation," which documented those proceedings, and he was a member of the Worcester team at the 2000 National Poetry Slam, where he finished as the 10th ranked individual. The Boston Phoenix has named him “Best Standup Poet,” the Boston Poetry Awards “Best Love Poet,” and the Cambridge Poetry Awards “Best Spoken Word” and “Best Humorous Poet .” The Boston Globe says, “In the poetry world, he's a rock star.”

Among his influences he numbers Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, and Garrison Keillor. He doesn't think of himself as a "performance poet," but as a "standup poetry guy," a writer of poems that perform themselves.

Poet Stephen Dobyns has written, "Jack McCarthy is one of the wonders of contemporary poetry. He writes—and often performs—dazzling narratives full of wit and humor, sadness and hard thinking. He should be cloned." Of Say Goodnight, Grace Notes, ALA Booklist says, "McCarthy brings his compelling experiences to his poetry with nimble humor, hard-won wisdom, and a raconteur's knack for telling diabolically barbed stories…concrete, candid, personal, and utterly captivating…caustic, sexy and smart."

Thomas Lux has written, "The only ambition he seems to have is to tell the truth as best he can in poems." That is a very worthy ambition, but it's not his only one. He also hopes to be remembered as an integral member of the movement to restore poetry to its rightful place in everyday American life. So that when Americans think of poetry, they don't think of school and homework, but of laughter and tears; a shortcut to the heart.

Bio and photo taken from Jack McCarthy's website. Click here for more information and a sample of the author's work.

May 14th: Patricia Fillingham Features


Photo by Bill Perrault

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 May 14th, we honor Stone Soup staple Patricia Fillingham with a full feature in tribute to her efforts in both poetry and publishing.

Patricia Fillingham is a celebrated regular at Stone Soup. Through her own imprint, Wart Hog Press, she has published a number of books by herself and others, including most recently Sam's Place by Charles H. Johnson. Her most recent collection of poetry is Existential Blues.

Monday May 7th, Stone Soup's John Wieners Tribute Featuring Charley Shively and Friends

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. May marks the 36th Anniversary of Stone Soup Poetry, and it will be marked with a tribute to the late poet and Stone Soup staple John Wieners led by Charley Shivey, along with Jim Dunn, John Landry, and Ryan Miller.



Charley Shively is the author of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, San Francisco Experience. He has written two volumes regarding Walt Whitman's correspondence, Calamus Lovers and Drum Beats, and The History of the Conception of Death in America 1650-1860 (1988).He was the founding editor of Fag Rag (one of the first gay-liberation publications in the country) and Good Gay Poets Press, publisher of John Wieners' seminal text Behind the State Capitol or Cincinnati Pike. He is Professor Emeritus of the UMass Boston History Department.



Jim Dunn of Philadelphia is the author of Convenient Hole (Pressed Wafer 2004) and Insects In Sex (Fallen Angel Press, 1995). He has served as the Poet-In-Residence at Endicott College and has also participated in the Prison Poetry reading Program at BU. His work appears in can we have our ball back?, Meanie, and the anthology celebrating John Wieners , The Blind See Only In This World. He lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.



John Landry is the Poet Laureate of New Bedford where he hosts the Whaling City Review LIVE poetry series in the Frederick Douglass Gallery of Gallery X. His work appears in New College Review, North Coast Review, Beatitude, onedit, Citizen 32, Range, Sliding Uteri, Meanie, Poetry Motel, Greenfield Review, Appeal to Reason, Contact II and elsewhere. His book Whaleopolis or Orpheus in Whaletown will appear in 2008.



Ryan Miller from Brockton has had work appear in the New College Review in San Francisco. He has read at Joyce Ellen Gallery in New London, UMass Dartmouth, the Brockton Public Library, Poetribe, Legacy, and Stone Soup. He will have work in the 50th anniversary
edition of Beatitude.

Click here for a sample of Charly Shively's work.

Click here for a sample of Jim Dunn's work.

Click here for a sample of John Landry's work.

Click here for a sample of Ryan Miller's work.

Click here to learn more about John Wieners (1934-2002).

Tonight, April 9th

Lee Letif and Chris Robbins Feature.

Visit this site later in the week for further updates.

Charles Coe Opens National Poetry Month tonight!

Reminder

G. Emil Reutter Features Tonight.

Reminder

Tim Gager features tonight.

Reminder: Two More Weeks Until National Poetry Month

The Features:

April 2nd: Welcome Charles Coe!

April 9th: The return antics of Lee Letif and Chris Robbins.

April 16th: Boston Poet editor Diana Saenz revisits Stone Soup.

April 23rd: Performance Poet Barbara Adler.

April 30th: Poet and novelist Steven Manchester.

April 30th: Steven Manchester Features



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. Closing off National Poetry Month on the 30th of April will be poet and fiction writer Steven Manchester, who will be reading selections from his new book Pressed Pennies, a novel which incorporates the author's own verse.

The father of two sons and one beautiful, little girl, Steven Manchester is the published author of The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy, Jacob Evans, A Father’s Love, Warp II and At The Stroke of Midnight, as well as several books under the pseudonym, Steven Herberts. His work has been showcased in such national literary journals as Taproot Literary Review, American Poetry Review and Fresh! Literary Magazine.

Manchester is an accomplished speaker, and currently teaches the popular workshop, "Write A Book, Get Published & Promote Your Work." Three of his screenplays have also been produced as films. When not spending time with his children, writing, teaching, or promoting his published books/films, this Massachusetts author speaks publicly to troubled children through the “Straight Ahead” Program.

April 23rd: Barbara Adler Features



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 April 23rd, performanc poet Barbara Adler selects Stone Soup as one of the stops on her tour.

In 2002, Barbara Adler was the youngest performer to win a spot on the acclaimed Vancouver Poetry Slam team, at the age of 18. Now a four-time member, Barbara has toured the world performing poetry both as a solo performer, and as a member of the spoken-word music band, The Fugitives. Known for her ability to mix intellectual poetics with entertaining observations about the quirkier moments of everyday life, Barbara has collaborated with composers, dancers, filmmakers and theater artists, creating “smart, funny, and often deeply moving poetry around questions of history, identity, and self-image” (Georgia Straight). This Spring, she finished a double major in Art and Culture Studies and Fine and Performing Arts at Simon Fraser University. Her new CD is titled “Flusterblush.”

Click here for Barbara Adler's MySpace page.

April 16th: Diana Sáenz Features



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 April 16th, Stone Soup welcomes the return of poet, playwright, performer, editor and former regular Diana Sáenz.

Diana Sáenz is a native of Los Angeles California, and has been writing poetry since the age of 15. Her plays have been produced around the country, and she is has three books of poetry presently for sale: An Ordindary Life Discussed, The Book of Eve, and Just This side of the 3rd Millenium. Diana and her husband, Marshall Harvey, whom she met in 1995 at Stone Soup Poetry when it was at TT The Bears, are the editors of Boston Poet Publication.

Her plays have been produced across the U.S. Her poetry has been staged in co-productions in theater and dance. She is on the Board of Directors of The National Boston Poetry Festival, and the founding editor of Boston Poet Magazine, and present editor of bostonpoet.com,

Sáenz is on the board of directors of Harris Gardner’s Boston National Poetry Festival. She designed the Tapestry of Voices website, as well as runs the bostonpoet.com website since 2000. She has featured most recently at the Kerouac Festival in October 2006, Squawk, Jeff Robinson’s Poetry Jazz, Lowell University, Nashua’s Poet’s Corner, Stone Soup Poets, and many other venues.

Click here for a sample of the author's work.

Visit bostonpoet.com

April 9th: Lee Litif and Chris Robbins Feature




Photos by Bill Perrault

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 April 9th, Stone Soup will feature the return of Stone Soup's favorite open mike gadfly, Lee Letif and his opener, Chris Robbins. Because this sure to be an extension of Letif's usual open mike performances, the April 9th show will likely not be viewable on public access and therefore is best viewed live.

Lee Letif has been a regular contribution to the Stone Soup open mike since 1991. He's the author of several chapbooks, including Unpatriotic Flags and Abominating White Houses, Reckless Paella and Defecating Republicans, and Ultrasonic Amplifiers and Marshall Amps/Genital Wart Puking Rednecks.

Chris Robbins was born in Boston, MA, in 1965, not that this crap is actually important. He graduated Whitman-Hanson High in 1984, earning a B. S. degree ('cause, fact it people, that's all a high school diploma is really worth these days). In 1993, after writing poetry and otherwise wasting ink for nine years, Chris wrote a bunch of fixed form poems and, attempting to emulate one of his favorite classic rock bands, Jethro Tull, self-published a chapbook called Bard's Ambition. Now, 14 years later, he's at it again, this time with a chapbook of love and human equality poetry, appropriately called Love Among Equals.

April 2nd: Charles Coe Features



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 the first Monday of February, Stone Soup has the pleasure of welcoming Charles Coe, who will be the first performer for our celebration of National Poetry Month.

Charles Coe is the winner of an Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and now coordinates the Council's literature and music grant programs. His work has appeared in numerous literary reviews and magazines. A volume of his poetry, Picnic on the Moon, has been published by Leapfrog Press. Charles also appears on two spoken-word CDs: Get Ready for Boston, a collection of stories and songs about Boston neighborhoods, and on One Side of the River, an anthology of Cambridge and Somerville poets.

His poems have been set to music by composers Julia Carey, Beth Denisch and Robert Moran. In addition to poetry, Charles writes feature articles and book reviews that have appeared in publications such as Harvard Magazine, The Boston Phoenix, and The Boston Globe. Charles is also co-chair of the Boston Chapter of the National Writers Union--a labor union for freelance writers.


Inventory
For the poets of Norfolk Correctional Institution

As a child, I kept track
of certain things: crack in the sidewalk
between the bus stop and school,
names of streets between the bridge
and our family's house,
toy soldiers lined up on a shelf.

Now the list of things I've lost, or forgotten,
or thrown away, at times seems longer
than the list of what remains; this feeling
often visits uninvited, late at night,
when every breath is a footstep
measuring the miles till dawn.

But this morning, when I walked across the yard,
the sun suddenly shoved through the clouds
to warm my face,
and later I was surprised by a small kindness
from an unexpected source. This life
is not the one I would have chosen;
but I will try to keep an open hand
for the gifts is spreads each day across my path,
like Easter eggs hidden in the grass.

--Charles Coe