Thank You, Adam


Photo by Bill Perrault

With Stone Soup's occasional scheduling problems, we are grateful to Adam Theilker, past feature and occasional host of Stone Soup, for his excellent feature on August 6th, performing from memory the poem "Horatius" by Thomas Babington Macaulay. This was done with little notice and no advance advertising. It was a full audience that was left amazed by his recitation.

We always look forward to Adam's features and open mike performances, whether it's his own poetry or work he clearly loves.

Click here to read the poem.

September 3rd: Philip Hasouris and Frank Miller Feature

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 September 3rd, Stone Soup welcomes back Brockton Library Poetry hosts Philip Hasouris and Frank Miller.

Philip Hasouris has been writing for many years. Like most poets, he began unsure of his words. kept them hidden in notebooks, draws, closets, always in the back of his mind. started reading publicly and eventually people started listening. since then, he has taken every opportunity to share the words.

Born in Scotland and educated both there and in the U.S., Frank Miller now works in sales. "I started writing almost seven years ago and, despite the pleas of the public, continue to do so. If there is anything to interest you it will be found in the poetry. My life certainly would not be entertaining enough to warrant a second glance."

Last Chance to Submit!

Spoonful will be accepting poems and/or artwork until midnight tonight for issue #1. Anything submitted afterwards will be considered for issue # 2 in the winter.

Click here for submission information.

August 27th: Anne Brudevold Features


Photo by Bill Perrault

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 August 27th, Stone Soup introduces poet, fiction writer, and editor of the upcoming journal Eden Waters Press, Anne Brudevold.

Anne Brudevold has taught writing at UMASS Amherst, Westfield State College, Holyoke Community College, and creative writing at SUNY Stonybrook. She was co-poetry editor of the internationally distributed journal Peregrine. Her poetry and fiction have been accepted in Poets On:, Onthebus, Windhorse, Small Pond, Pleaides, Black Bough, Mississippi Review, Bagelbards Anthology #2, Ibbetson Street, Wilderness House Literary Review, and others.

Wilderness House Literary Review is featuring a serial version of her novel Hunter Moon, and plans to publish the full length version in print. She was runner up for Best Short Story in The Optimist, a newspaper of Western MA. She publishes The Eden River Press, which has done a chapbook, and has an anthology and several chapbooks in the works. A sample poem follows below.

Near East

we begin the early morning digging in Judea

under a sky of dim, the dullest saphire

and ochre stars, we work a half-dug empire

suddenly in one small hour

dawn! the sun's rays rake an old design

lend the earth colors veined like mines

our ditches hesitate, then catch fire

ancient roads lighten, slowly wind

to nearest nearest east; these acres bloom

infant bones in urns of metal flame

priestess crowns, warrior swords, tooled sheeep bones

dried flowers for a camel with no name

in their stony birth pits they reach to sing

newly rising Solomon, copper king

Click here to visit Eden Waters Press.

Correction

In the prior post (and Yahoo! Groups message) on the Highway Poets, we incorrectly listed Colorado T Sky, Gypsypashn and Marc Goldfinger on last night's bill. We found out too late that this was not the case and had neglected to post the bio of J. Barrett Wolf, who was slated to appear. This has been corrected on the main site.

We apologize for the error.

August 20th: The Highway Poets Return

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 August 20th, The Highway poets make their annual return to the venue as one of their many New England stops in celebration of Biker Poetry Month in August.

Photos by Bill Perrault

K.Peddlar Bridges is the co-founder of the Biker Poets & Writers Association and founder of the RoadPoet online magazine. He also serves as a columnist for CT Cruise News and motorcyclegoodies.com. An occasional writing workshop teacher, his work has appeared in numerous publications and has made many radio and television appearances.

J Barrett Wolf is the Editor of the New York version of RoadPoet. First published in the 1970's, he has had hs work published in print and online magazines around the country, with Spanish translations of his work appearing in Caribbean newspapers. His most recent work can be found in the anthology Passing from PoetWorks Press and Raised By Wolves, written with K. Peddlar Bridges.

Issue # 0 of Spoonful Is Up! Submit Now!

Spoonful, the online Stone Soup Poetry tribute journal, has been released with issue # 0 as part of an ongoing quarterly publishing schedule.

POEMS BY: Patricia Brodie, Ann Carhart, Susie Davidson, Jacques "The HatainFirefly" Fleury, Lo Galluccio, Marc D. Goldfinger, Carolyn Gregory, Gypsypashin, Paul Hapenny, Doug Holder, Coleen T. Houlihan, Gordon Marshall, Margaret Nairn, Chad Parenteau, Bill Perrault, Jack Powers, Deborah Priestly, Sue Red, Chris Robbins, Ian Thal, Sue Red, Adam Thielker, James Van Looy, and Carol Weston.

ACCOMPANYING ARTWORK BY: James Conant, Bill Perrault, Deborah Priestly, and Cindy Williams.

Spoonful is currently accepting submissions of poetry, prose and artwork for issue # 1, to be released in the fall.

The website will be going under some revisions over the next week, but the submissions guidelines will always be accessible via the main page. For submission information, as well as a look at the first issue, please visit the Spoonful journal here.

Reminder

Irene Koronas Features Tonight.

August 13th: Jade Sylvan 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. Jade Sylvan is a writer new to the Boston area and an enthusiastic open mike poet. On July 30th, Stone Soup will be pleased to give this poet her first feature as she debuts her chapbook The Crossroad.

Jade Sylvan was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington. She currently lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has been featured in The Ibbetson Street Journal, BostonNOW, Word Riot, and Somerville News' "Lyrical Somerville." In the next year she plans to complete a novel, visit many friends, maintain her blog, and get her head on straight. She will be 25 on September 9th, and prefers drinks and cash money to presents.

Click here to visit Jade Sylvan's blog.

Click here for a sample of Jade Sylvan's work.

July 30th: Samantha Jane Scolamiero 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 July 30th, Stone Soup welcomes back Samantha Jane Scolamiero back for a full length feature, during which copies of her chapbook and artwork will be available.

The hostess of the Namless Coffee House series Samantha Jane Scolamiero was a member of the 2004 Boston Cantab Slam Poetry Team attending nationals and has appeared throughout New England and at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. She is the author of a book of poetry and photography, The Nameless Collection. Her poem "Last Jazz" has been heard on the radio. As her alter ego Sam-R-I, she has hosted the annual Head-to-Head haiku competition at the Cantab Lounge since 2005. Her photography has been a fixture at the annual Somerville Open Studio.

Click here to visit Samantha Jane Scolamiero's web site.

July 23rd: Irene Koronas 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 July 23rd, Ibbetson Street visits us again with another of it's recently published poets, local poet, editor and "Wordcatcher" for the Bagelbards, Irene Koronas.

Irene Koronas has a fine arts degree from Mass College of Art in Boston. She is a multi media artist working with paint, collage, mono-printing, artists books and poetry. She is currently the poetry editor for Wilderness House Literary Review. Her poetry has appeared in Lummox Journal, Free Verse Journal, Posey magazine and on line zines such as Arcanam Café, Spearhead, Index Poetry, Unblog, Haiku Hut and Lynx. She has seven chap-books: work among friends, where words drip, perception, tongue on everyday, species, flat house and to speak the meaning of being. Her most recent book self portrait drawn from many is published by Ibbettson Street Press.

Click here for a sample of Irene Koronas' work.

Click here to purchase self portrait drawn from many.

July 16th: John Mercuri Dooley 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 July 16th, John Mercuri Dooley performs before setting out on a tour to perform his poem "MuBet."

John Mercuri Dooley lives in east cambridge with his husband andrew richardson and their whippet roma. andrew and john run the Demolicious poetry/multimedia series, the first sunday of every month from september through June at Out of The Blue. John has been published in various print and online publications, including Blaze Vox, Fascicle, Moria and Word for Word. he co-edited the second issue of the online journal Eoagh, which was a tribute to Jackson Mac Low. His ongoing serial poem, "MuBet," can be read via the link below.

Click here for the Dooley edited issue of Eoagh.

Read MuBet.

Learn more about the Demolicious poetry series.

Tonight

Doug Holder Returns.

Come back to the site later this week for further updates.

Tonight

Welcome back, Marvyn Petrucci.

Thanks


Photo by Bill Perrault

Thanks to Abbott Ikeler, who featured at Stone Soup this past Monday.

Because Ikeler's publisher, Doug Holder, will also be featuring at the end of June, Stone Soup is adding a link here to Ibbetson Street's storefront page at Lulu.com for Ikeler's Outpost and other titles.

EdenRiverPress


Photo by Bill Perrault

From poet and writer Anne Brudevold:

Ever-learning from successes and mistakes, I and some friends are
starting a small press mag called EdenRiver, published by our very
own EdenRiverPress. I started on my own with a chapbook of my own
poems, learned a lot doing it, and gave chapbooks as Christmas
presents, so I could write instead of shop. Well, the bug bit.
Inspired by Ibbetson Press, and all you small press people, and
starting to know Boston/Cambridge/ Somerville better, momentum is
gathering and a small team (like little league baseball) Eden River
is launched. We have an art director, proofreaders, design advice,
and a team to read manuscripts. We are soliciting manuscripts of
short fiction, poetry, interviews and reviews. Guidelines are 5-6
poems, 4-5 pages fiction, 2-3 page non-fiction/ reviews.

The first issue has a theme -- Home. Send us your memories/thoughts
of your roots, of childhood, your ideas of home or homelessness. The
deadline is September 30, 2007. So please honor us with your
submission. We promise to read it with care, and, if accepted, we
intend to put out, on quality paper with photographs and
illustrations, an organic-to-the- eye-ear-mind perfect bound volume
with ISBN number.

You will receive a complimentary copy, and the opportunity to buy
more to give as presents or to sell yourself and keep the profit.
Send your work to EdenRiverPress@gmail.com
Thank you so much! Please help us by spreading the word. Submissions
are opent to all.

We don't want to over-crowd the small press world. We have a unique
vision of Eden and we hope you will share your visions with us.

--Anne and The Team

Tonight

June 11th: Abbott Ikeler reads.

Future Stone Soup Features

June 11th: Abbott Ikeler reads from his first collection, Outburst.

June 18th: Marvyn Petrucci visits from Auburn University.

June 25th: Doug Holder visits Stone Soup to celebrate his two new chapbooks.

July 2nd: Stone Soup presents the touring poetry group Reason to Listen.

July 9th: Erin Reardon 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 July 9th, Stone Soup welcomes new writer to the local scene Erin Reardon for her first feature.

Erin fancies herself more of a recovering Catholic who is still trying to find herself and her voice, using writing as a tool to purge her often overloaded mind. Her poems are sometimes sad, and often darkly comical. Many are tales of religious confusion, female hormonal rages, love, life, frustration and loss. She gains most of her inspiration through people-watching in barrooms, hospitals, the ever-cliche coffee shops and basically just running around the streets of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.

Her heroes include Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut, Anne Sexton, Dorothy Parker, and Charles Bukowski. She has been published in Quillbillies literary magazine, and has several pieces pending in other literary 'zines both in print and online. She has done open mic nights at Stone Soup and Open Bark and at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. She also has 2 self-published collections, Tales of a Sunday School Dropout and Sleeping on a Bed of Percocet White, which will be available at her feature or she can send you one ($4.00 each which includes shipping, $3.00 each at the show) if you drop her a line at tigerlilygirl66@yahoo.com She currently works at a non-profit in Cambridge and resides in Arlington, Massachusetts. A sample poem follows below.


Skin

Skin is so fragile
So simple
So curious
Easy to tear at
Easy to caress

Skin is useless
Unless it is tasted
Wanted
And most of all touched

She liked to watch hers
Open up so wide
Making crimson waterfalls
She liked to poke it
Tease it
Ruin it

She hated her skin
Until
It found his.

--Erin Reardon

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.