January 23rd: G. Emil Reutter 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. Visiting Stone Soup from out of state for the first time will be poet, fiction writer, and essayist G. Emil Reutter.

G Emil Reutter is an author/poet from Lower Bucks County Pennsylvania. His home base is The Five Points Java Joint where he reads normally on the 3rd Friday of the month with the Madpoets Society. He currently has a chapbook of poetry entitled Asphalt Road (2004) and two collections of short stories/essays/poems entitled Life Views (2004), The Jonesville Collection (2004) available as ebooks at Stonegarden Publishing. A number of manuscripts are in submission status. His poetry/prose/essays have been published widely in the small and electronic press.

A sample poem of Reutter's is included below.

saturday night sinners

troubadours sing songs whose lyrics

have long lost their meaning

tina circles dave on the dance floor

as she eyes up johnny at the bar

who chugs another beer wondering

where his wife is

the band sings “born to run”

tina laughs at the crowd dancing

changing the lyric to “born to jog”

or “walk really fast”

dave scores a blond and leaves

tina saddles up next to johnny

listening to the cheat on me blues

waiting for him to take her

where she wants to go

sunday morning comes

as dave picks the tinted blue hair

from his pillow

johnny and his wife enter the church

tina walks by and winks

as johnny notices

the pastor eyeing up his wife

dave runs in sitting down

not noticing the blue haired lady

until she places her hand on his knee

cringing knowing he can’t get away

and here they all sit

saturday night sinners

in sunday morning forgiveness

--G. Emil Reutter

Click here to visit G. Emil Reutter's website.

January 16th: Elizabeth K. Doran 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. Returning to feature at Stone Soup is local poet and regular open miker Elizabeth K. Doran.

Elizabeth K. Doran has been influenced as a poet by modern women writers such as Sharon Olds and Louis Gluck. Although she would never want to be called a "nature poet" nature is always present in her work. "Nature is part of the environment we all share and informs my sensibility," she says. Elizabeth is drawn to syllabics and loves long syllabic lines. A major influence is Eugino Montale who in 1975 was awarded the Nobel prize for literature.

She is published in Poises and Spare Change news and has read at many Venues in Boston and beyond. She is the former host of poetry at Gallery Diablo.

A sample poem of Doran's is included below.

The Sinners

A woman stands in the middle of the square
she is covered in layers of blue cloth her eyes are hidden.
Men begin to gather, collect stones.
Somewhere under the cloth a heart beats.
It is said those without sin should cast the first stone.
But a sinner picks up a rock and throws it
then there is a frenzy of sinners casting
stones until their rage subsides.
Her god surely heard her heart beat
until it stopped.

--Elizabeth K. Doran

January 9th: Tom Daley 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. Featuring for the first time at Stone Soup on January 9th will be poet, performer teacher, producer and recent chapbook author Tom Daley.

Tom Daley leads poetry writing workshops at the Boston Center for Adult Education and starting January 15, 2006 at Jeff Robinson's Online School of Poetry. His poetry has been published in a number of journals, including Prairie Schooner, can we have our ball back?, 32 Poems and Poetry Ireland Review. His chapbook, Canticles & Inventories was published in the fall of 2005.

Click here to read two poems by Tom Daley.

Click here for the home of Jeff Robinson's Online School of Poetry.

January 2nd: Raffi Wolf 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. Featuring for the very first Stone Soup gathering in the new year will be Raphael Wolf.

Raphael Wolf was Bill Barnum's editor in the mid '80's, Rent Free (about homelessness) and I Wish That My Room Had A Floor (about mental illness). He has also had poems, articles, and short stories printed in Spare Change.

December 26th: Doug Holder 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. Returning to the venue next after his unfortunate cancellation in October will be Ibbetson Street publisher Doug Holder.

After many years of publishing numerous small press poets through his own Ibbetson Street Press, including his own chapbooks (Dreams At The Au Bon Pan, On Either Side of The Charles, waking In A Cold Sweat), Doug Holder finally gets to sit back and enjoy simply being a published author, thanks to Yellow Pepper Press. On the 31st, Stone Soup Poetry will premiere Holder's new chapbook Wrestling With My Father, which has earned advance praise from poets such as Harris Gardner and Hugh Fox.

Most recently, Ibbetson Street Press published Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! by past Stone Soup feature Ann Carhart. Also The Somerville News Writers Festival, created by Holder and Heat City Literary Review Editor Tim Gager, took place on November 13 at the Somerville Theatre (see the link at the end of this post).

A sample poem of Holder's is included here.

Another...in a series of turning fifty poems.

My Life: In Contrast With Others.

There is no need for comparison.
Nor is there time.
What I wanted before
has been rendered to caricature.
The Phantom that pulls and pulls at me
I will never clearly see--

The only contrast
will be that short,
tenuous last breath
that will surely be,
the death
of me.


The Ibbetson Street Press website.

The Yellow Pepper Press Website.

The Somerville News Writers Festival.

December 19th: Philip E. Burnham, Jr. 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. Featuring December 19th will be poet Philip E. Burnham, Jr.

Philip E. Burnham, Jr. was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in New England. He is a graduate of Harvard College and served as American Vice Consul in Marseille, France. After receiving a doctorate in Medieval History from Tufts University, he taught in public and private secondary schools and colleges in the Boston area. He has published three books of poetry, My neighbor Adam (2003) and Sailing from Boston (2003), and his newest, Housekeeping (2005). He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A sample poem is included below.


Voices of The Dead

From the radio, voices of the dead
Fill the kitchen like Christmas cinnamon
This low, late december, sun day pink red
Cloud, yellow morning, disembodied sounds

Of music for opera, concert stage
Performed as a lyric necrology,
A year's sum of loss, encore passages
To other shores, scores with these noteworthy

Musicians, their places left to the young
Who play muted instruments, the tempo
A reverence for keys, strings, brass, winds, drums
Voices untuned, unstrung, adagio.

But your songs for children and for love were
Never recorded to be replayed when
You were out of touch, time; their echoes bear
On my hearing as ocean waves wear through

The icy gates of great December's end
and winter's opening, songs whisper in
My heart's good ear where I may often spend
Time's purse to recall you as I listen.

December 12th: John Sturm 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. Making his debut feature at Stone Soup is John Sturm, orator of great local renown, performing "The Raven," among other works by Edgar Allen Poe.

John Sturm has been performing at open mikes for the last few years at The Cantab, Club Passim, Out of The Blue and other venues. He has twice performed at Forsyth Chapel for e.e. cummings' birthday anniversary. Although he writes almost nothing of his own, he will include several haiku and at least one longer poem of his own. A sample sonnet and haiku are included below:



When our little pups stretch out for belly rubs
Or beg for Snaussages with pleading eyes
When our best exercise is walking them
Or throwing Frisbees till they tire us out

When we delight in all the tricks they do
Rewarding them with kibbles and with praise
Or watch them running free within a yard
Bringing sticks or rubber balls for us to throw

When in the living room they find the sun
Or in the winter lie before the fire
And seem asleep yet stay alert
For any sound which threatens us

They've added joy unto another day
And shown their loving in the way they play



No love poem has
the eloquence of lovers
Silent--eye to eye.

Tonight

Vicki Bosch Murray Features

Out Of The Blue Benefit Link

Click here for updates on the December 10th raffle to benefit the Out Of The Blue Art Gallery. More information on the pieces being raffled will be available by the end of the week.

You can also purchase raffle tickets via a PayPal link on the site.

Out of The Blue Holiday Raffle

When: Saturday, December 10^th, 12-5 p.m.

Where: Out of The Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge

Artists have donated various works like poetry books, framed photography, sculpture, and paintings for the benefit raffle. Come have food, drink, and see the entertainment. Enter to win an item, or purchase one of the many affordable pieces for sale.

Scheduled performers include:

Carolyn Gregory (poet)
Chad Parenteau (poet, co-host of Stone Soup Poetry)
Bill Perrault (poet, producer of Stone Soup TV series)
Deb Priestly (poet, Out of The Blue Sales Manager)
Meg Smith (poet, dancer)
Lynne Sticklor (The Prize Lady)

And an Open Mike as well.

Many ways to participate, whether or not you can attend the show:

$10 Two raffle tickets, and admission on December 10^th.
$7 One raffle ticket, plus admission.
$5 One raffle ticket.
$4 Suggested Donation Admission only.
$? Donation to Out of the Blue.
$!! Participates in the open mike will be eligible for an exclusive raffle!

All money for purchased raffle tickets and donations will solely benefit the Out of The Blue art gallery. All art, time and food have been donated (thanks to the Middle East Café and other local venders and peoples).

We will continue to accept donations of artwork until the day of the event.

Raffle tickets sales will be going on all day- up to the drawing.

You will be notified if you win and are not in attendance.

Admission and raffle tickets will be available at the Out of The Blue Art gallery. For more information on the event, call Out of The Blue at 617-354-5287 or email Chad Parenteau at freakmachinepress@yahoo.com for more information.

Poem of The Week

Due to a late entry, we were not able to have a featured poem last week. We apologize and hope this doesn't happen again.

This week, we have Dan Shanahan, a veteran poet and an associate of Janaka Stucky who came to Stucky's November 21st reading and impressed in the open mike. Hopefully, he will have his own feature sometime in 2006.


A Silk Moth In Holyoke, Massachusetts

There was a moth
from Koboke, Japan
Who it is said made thread
With lineage from China,
Three thousand years old.
When its eggs hatched
Stars were stitched upon thier backs.
As caterpillars they mused and grazed
At zero speed on green fields
Of Mulberry leaves.
In such idle ways
They dreamed themseves
Into cocoons,
Dangled in their solitudes,
Pupas pulsing with the moon.
when they woke
Their work began
Spinning silk for my mother,
Who sewed by hand
Buttonholes and linings
I recall, for a sweater
She made for me one fall.

Boxi moth, furry,
Plain khaki tan,
My city was spun
From your imaginings.
You threaded the river
Through the needles of canals
Dug out with immigrant hands.
In your sleep you turned the mills
The cogs and wheels
Spooling bobbins by the millions
To bind this world in silk
And pay for the shop-floor girl's
Bottle of milk.

--Dan Shanahan

Upcoming Features

Don't forget our future features for the month of December. The poet for December 26th will be announced soon.

November 28th: Ryk McIntyre
December 5th: Victoria Bosch Murray
December 12th: John Sturm
December 19th: Philip burnham, Jr.

Janaka Stucky's November 21st Reading

Photo by Bill Perrault

Thanks to Janaka Stucky for reading at Stone Soup Poetry and introducing new people to the venue.

December 5th: Victoria Bosch Murray 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. Making her debut feature on December 5th will be poet and venue host Victoria Bosch Murray.

Victoria Bosch Murray, 2004 Cambridge Poetry Award recipient, has published poetry most recently in Poetic Voices Without Borders, Dos Pasos Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, and Wolf Moon Press Journal. Murray has also published two chapbooks: Running A Red, and her most recent, Not to Scale. She is host of Poetribe in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

A sample poem of Murray's from Wolf Moon Press Journal.

November 28th: Ryk McIntyre 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. Returning to Stone Soup on November 28th will be performance 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 Leon Redbone and Jim Carroll, as well as appearing as part of Lollapalooza 1994. 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 also the author of four chapbooks, including his most recent, Love Is A Flashlight. He is a known biped.

A sample poem from Nth Position.

The latest PDF version of 100 Poets Against The War.

Janaka Stucky reads on November 21st

Click here for more informaiton.

Future Readings

November 28: performance poet Ryk McIntyre

December 5th: Victoria Bosch Murray, poet and host of Poetribe venue in Bridgewater

December 12th: Orator extraordinaire John Sturm

More information on these features and those for the rest of December will appear soon on the site.

Recent Readings

Bill Perrault offersmore scenes from past readings.


Coleen Houlihan, reading a selection of her work, including her novel-in-progress, Beautiful Bastard


Lowell poet Meg Smith, from this past Monday

Meg Smith Tonight

Don't forget about Meg Smith's return to Stone Soup tonight.

Poem Of The Week

We continue our new weekly feature with a new poem by Melissa Bates, a newcomer to the open mike at Stone Soup Poetry.


Waste

Tonight, I knew
this is where
the dead and the dying go.
So I took a step back,
crouched down
into the black
crescent of your shadow,
steadied my arms,
waited for your fall.

I knew in the way
I used to love
the slowing
of my own pulse,
How even the blue
of my vein
became both beautiful
and dangerous
under moonlight,
How silver flat blades
tasted like candy
underneath my tongue,
How blood was the only
proof of potency,
Knew.

Knew in the way
I used to catch sight
of myself in strange bathroom stalls,
arms curled around porcelain,
slick forehead lightening smack
against toilet seats
with each involuntary seize
of my body,
Knew.

Maybe this is why
I wanted to slip
my fingers underneath
your ribs,
lift you right off the ground,
scream something
about cracks
and time
and life
needing to be more
than just a habit,
do something other than
listen to your breath leak
like air from a tire,
a slow hiss
before the final pop.

See, tonight,
I saw you
in the mirror,
parchment paper thin skin
merely draping over bones,
head hanging down,
hair the color of
Scotch whiskey spilling
over egg breasts,
and I knew.

--Melissa Bates

Poem of The Week

The Stone Soup Poetry Site will now start publishing poetry from those who frequent the venue, in addition to the highlighted features, with a emphasis on finding new voices. That being said, we already break away from tradition by selecting for our first poem, "Untitled" by Walter Howard, who featured earlier in October but was unable to provide us a sample poem for the web site.


Untitled

I measure the beat of the
tired world's heart
choked with sadness
count the broken dream's silent tears
catch the lost child's lamentations
torment of the wind cast in chains
Paof the bird that has broken its wing
Wimpers of the faithful old hound, mercilessly kicked
the murdered heart's strains.

Go! Place roses on the cold
On the saring eyes of the dead.

--Walter Howard

Don't Forget

Coleen Houlihan tonight.

Another Past Performance

Photo by Bill Perrault

Robert Milby's performance on October 24th was a great success, and appropriate for the Haloween season. We will be posting information on the New York venues he hosts soon.

October 31st Update

Due to unforseen circumstances, Doug Holder will not be able to read for his planned October 31st feature at Stone Soup Poetry. The reading will be scheduled for a later date.

Instead, Stone Soup Poetry on October 31st will hold a open mike dedicated to Doug Holder's own Ibbetson Street Press. All authors published under Doug Holder's imprint are invited to read and give tribute to his efforts as a publisher.

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.

November 21st: Janaka Stucky Features


Photo by Q. Nuruzzaman.

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. Making his debut feature on November 21st will be poet and publisher Janaka Stucky.

Janaka Stucky is the founder and managing editor of Black Ocean, an non-profit publishing and production company based out of Boston, New York, and Chicago. After receiving hs BFA in writing and literature from Emerson College, he went on to get an MFA in poetry from Vermont College.

Prior to founding Black Ocean, he was the co-founder of the Boston-based nationally touring group, the Guerilla Poets, a street-poetry collective of over 700 members internationally who devoted themselves to injecting poetry into public and commercial spaces on a weekly basis.

Stucky has been a guest lecturer at Vermont College's MFA in writing program. A wnner of several national Haiku competitions, his poems have also been published in a variety of journals, including North American Review, Blue Fifth Review, Frogpond, Elixir, and Volt.

Rooted in Boston, Stucky spends his life traveling, writing, and caring for the dead. He likes his whisky neat and his music dirty. He is developing the perfection of effort and is ever reading to serve you by word.

A sample poem is included below.


Eavesdropping My Funeral

I threw a funeral for myself
and invited all my friends
to see who would show and
who would not.

At the service, I remember
all my in-laws clearing their
throats.

I played a guessing game with
my eyes closed—who’s lips were
who’s upon my propped up
head.

And when someone asked,
“Did he suffer much?”
someone else said,
“Like the wings of a butterfly.”

I thought of jumping
up and laughing. I let them bury me
instead.


A recent Boston Phoenix article about Janaka Stucky.

The Black Ocean website.

November 14th: Meg Smith Features


Photo by Julia Cheng.

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. Lowell Poet Meg Smith Returns to Feature on November 14th.

Meg Smith has published more than 200 poems, short stories and other works in a variety of literary journals, including many in the Gothic and horror genres. Recent publication credits include Renovation Journal, Poetry Bay, Pulse, The Cafe Review, Erosha, The Lowell Pearl, The Gothic Revue, Dreams of Decadence, and others.

She has published a book of poetry, The First Fire, and is working on a second book. She is a member of the board of directors of the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival dedicated to Beat writer Jack Kerouac, and editor and publisher of Red Eft, an online literary journal. A sample poem is included below, originally published in The Gothic Revue.

Moons of Saturn: Cassini Probe

Now we approach
in the gray descent,
a landscape blurs like shapeless trowsers,
a body not inhabited or summarized.
but bodies we have found, and they
speak a distant code to our own cold white
single garnet.
One breathes its own swirl of gas,
presumptuous as to be almost planetary.
One speaks to canals of comic books
and radio shows.
They have much to give.
But our needs are few.
We wouldn't ask for granite or delusions of seas
that glow green
or trinkets in the atmosphere to form rings.
All we want is the truth of time.
All we want is the first dawn.

Meg Smith's web site.

Red Eft.

November 7th: Coleen Houlihan 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. Coleen T. Houlihan returns to us November 7th to feature.

Coleen T. Houlihan studied writing at Wellesley College and has been a writer for many years with poetry being her first love. Presently she is working on a novel. Her work has published in The Cambridge Alewife and the 2003 Stone Soup Anthology. She also has two chapbooks: This Human Heart and Desire's Burn.

She has always been attracted to the written form as a way of giving rise to emotions and disentangling them, both in herself and in others. Like any exercise, which involves two components, the writer and created piece work together to become the key that can unlock the door to the reader’s mind. Through slim picture books read to her as a child, Coleen first became that reader. She presently resides in Boston, MA. Below is a sample poem recently published in the Alewife.

The Elephants

Please understand me,
for I am mine tonight-

The ringmaster says the elephants
are all right
but as I passed their cage,
all metal and no sun,
I caught a glimpse of their eyes
and the way they were mashing
bars and tufts and chains,
the way they were biting their own skin
said to me
the elephants are wild tonight.

And he was so confident
as he lead them into the ring
with balls, hoops of fire and whips of hide-
I took a seat knowing what it would bring
and the elephants came running
around the tent as if they were sheep
deep grey and as large as submarines.
Yes, something will go down tonight.
Not me, not me, not me.

And one by one he introduced them,
names of Dolly, Sally, Pete-
and I remembered thinking,
right before the screams,
that these elephants were once from Africa-
distant, wild and free
and who did he think he was addressing,
what was it that he was choosing to see?
Not me, not me, not me.

They were beautiful
and the people screamed.
The woman next to me waved her arms
falling like brittle leaves-
clearly she did not see,
and as her head hit the floor
I thought,
“Not me.”

Dressed in red, crimson channels
that flowed down their flanks
and their wounds were the shapes of
deserts, lakes and trees
more powerful than the mark
of any hand that had touched
those wild, wild beasts…

And their cries reminded me
of my own.

But the ringmaster was shouting
foreign, bitter words.
Then the ringmaster was a decoration,
his body a blur
of white ivory and red skin
and the people were all screaming
as the hoops blazed yellow sun
and the balls burst and collapsed
and the woman on the floor was yelling,
“My god, my god what is this!”

I smiled when I saw her
looked her in the eye,
“It’s the elephants,” I said.
“They are wild tonight.”
And then I sank my teeth
into her flesh
and as the elephants thrashed,
as the elephants pressed,
I knew
they understood.

October 31st: Doug Holder 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. Returning to the venue next Monday will be local small press figure Doug Holder.

After many years of publishing numerous small press poets through his own Ibbetson Street Press, including his own chapbooks (Dreams At The Au Bon Pan, On Either Side of The Charles, waking In A Cold Sweat), Doug Holder finally gets to sit back and enjoy simply being a published author, thanks to Yellow Pepper Press. On the 31st, Stone Soup Poetry will premiere Holder's new chapbook Wrestling With My Father, which has earned advance praise from poets such as Harris Gardner and Hugh Fox.

Last month, Ibbetson Street Press published Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! by recent Stone Soup feature Ann Carhart. Also The Somerville News Writers Festival, created by Holder and Heat City Literary Review Editor Tim Gager, will be taking place on November 13 at the Somerville Theatre (see the link at the end of this post).

A sample poem of Holder's is included here.

Another...in a series of turning fifty poems.

My Life: In Contrast With Others.

There is no need for comparison.
Nor is there time.
What I wanted before
has been rendered to caricature.
The Phantom that pulls and pulls at me
I will never clearly see--

The only contrast
will be that short,
tenuous last breath
that will surely be,
the death
of me.


The Ibbetson Street Press website.

The Yellow Pepper Press Website.

The Somerville News Writers Festival.

October 24th: Robert Milby 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. Featuring this Monday for the first time will be New York poet Robert Milby.

Robert Milby has hosted poetry readings throughout the Hudson Valley since 1995. He is the author of four poetry chapbooks (his most recent, The Ruin of Camelot) and a spoken word CD (Revenant Echo). He has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies such as Hunger Magazine, Will Work for Peace, Hart, Fertile Ground, Chronogram, The Hudson Valley Literary Magazine, The Orange Voice, and Motivate a Mind.

Currently, Milby hosts a poetry series at Joey’s Café in Washingtonville, NY and at the Mudd Puddle Café in New Paltz, NY.

A sample poem from Milby is included below.

Summer Ghosts

The stench of rotting peat moss;
animals killed by ignominious drivers, last year’s onion casualties,
rises beneath an ominous,
humidity swollen August Moon.
Old Summer’s heavy ghosts sit nearby and watch.
Here is an elderly phantom,
leaning on a pretentious real-estate sign.
Another shade, merely glowing eyes,
screams from a frog dominated culvert
in a ditch near the quiet onion field.
How, then, can I walk during the death of purple ochre afterglow,
Along the access road, pavement still ornery, heat growling underfoot,
Of August’s sultry insanity?
She appears only when I remove my glasses to clean them…
Her forty years extinguished by technology.
The migrant worker’s shock would have risen through dimensions…
A mother, crushed beneath large, peat caked tires of an onion tractor.
Was it children who’d painted the memorial on the road, near the elementary school?
The swooning phantoms have sucked away grueling humidity,
to allow my word knitting on a cool back porch this morning.
Late August is a precarious time…ghosts do not wish to wean themselves of their Solar medication…
Summer has no desire to desiccate or to blush in cooler weather.
Summer knows…that having storms, only serves the kingdom of Autumn:
Frost fanfare, migrating flocks, insect funerals, and huddled animals…

October 17th: Walter Howard Features


Photo by Bill Perrault.

An Open Mike favorite who has read everywhere from Stone Soup to Word Beat to the Boston Public Library as part of the 5th Annual Poetry Month Festival, poet Walter Howard will now get a full 20-30 minute feature slot to entertain us.

As always, 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.

Christopher Kain's Reading


Photo by Bill Perrault.

We'd like to thank Christopher Kain for reading as well as share news we were not privy to until his reading.

Kain's first chapbook, Homefront, will be available soon. To be informed when it comes out, you can email him at cdkain@yahoo.com.

Past Performances

The volunteers at Stone Soup Poetry will attempt to post these photos with more regularlity. All photos are by Bill Perrault.


Felipe Victor Martinez from October 3rd, reading from Alan Ginsberg's "Howl" while friend Timothy George accompanies with percussion.


Ala Khaki from September 24th, reading while Jack Powers Observes.


Carolyn Gregory from September 19th.

October 10: Christopher Kain Features




Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. Featuring for the first time on October 10 will be Christopher Kain.

Christopher Kain first found poetry at a cafe inNorthampton, MA, in the early 90's and has been in love ever since. An English major from UMass Amherst, Kain later found areas to read in Connecticut and Virginia,where his poetry was included in two local anthologies. He has been featured at the Cantab Lounge Cambridge, MA where he still reads a new poem each week as part of the poetry venue's open mike. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in Library Science. A sample poem is below:

i meant to write you a poem
but the words fell out of rhyme
i meant to write you a book
but i lost track of time

i meant to write you a song
but the notes fell out of tune
i meant to write about you
so i wrote for the moon

Future Performers

October 10th: Local poet Christopher Kaine.

October 17th: Frequent Stone Soup open Miker Walter Howard.

October 24: New York Poet Robert Milby.

October 31: Ibbetson Street Press founder Doug Holder with his new book.

November 7th: Poet and novelist Coleen Houlihan.

November 14th: Lowell poet and activist Meg Smith.

November 21: Guerrilla Poet and Small Press Organizer Janaka Stucky.

October 3: Felipe Victor Martinez Features


Photo by Bill Perrault

A beat-influenced poet with strong ties to Stone Soup, Felipe Victor Martinez divides his time maintaining the successful business Astro Imaging, hosting the monthly Word Beat gathering at Out of The Blue, and co-fronting (with Lynne Sticklor) Cozmic Orange Press. The press recently put out a special limited editon of Poems by Bill Perrault by the fellow Stone Souper and plans to publish a new poetry journal. Martinez returns to us for a feature this Monday and hopes for yet another appearance by Jack Powers, having missed the birthday celebration of our founder last month.

Click here for sample poems by Martinez.

Click here for more information on Word Beat and the other Out Of The Blue Spoken word Events.

Click here for Martinez' Astro Imaging Page.

Reminder: Ala Khaki Features September 26th

Because this is a blog, only the most recent posts stay on top. Click here if you don't want to scroll down to the post about Khaki's life and work before seeing him tonight.

Another Photo From Jack Powers' Birthday


Jack Powers and Simon Schnatter. Photo by Bill Perrault.

Bill Perrault has been tireless in his efforts to document Stone Soup Poetry with photos like the one above and the regular Stone Soup Poetry show he puts together every week for Cambridge Community Television. Hopefully, more photos from recent performances will grace this website.

If anyone would like to help contribute to the website or assist in documenting Stone Soup, please email stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com

Happy Birthday, Jack


Jack Powers, September 12, 2005. Photo by Bill Perrault.

Stone Soup Poetry thanks everyone who gave tribute to Jack Powers this past Monday and helped make his birthday celebration so successful. The readings and tributes went on for so long, everyone missed the chance to go to the restaurant in the North End as was originally intended. However, by the time the guest of honor went up to read, it was hardly a concern.

If possible, more photos from the reading will be posted here soon.

Tonight

Jack Powers' Birthday reading is just a couple of hours away. Hope to see you there.

September 26th: Ala Khaki Features



Stone Soup Poetry will meet from 8-10 p.m. with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. Featuring for the first time will be the poet Ala Khaki.

Ala Khaki was born in Iran in 1955. Twice he was a political prisoner under the Shah’s regime for his participation in the democracy movement at the ages of 18 and 19 respectively. In 1978, a year after his second release and the destruction of his first book, From Here to Sunrise (some of those poems were later published in his Farsi chapbook Calling The Dawn over fifteen years later), he left Iran for America after receiving a tip from a relative with ties to the military that he was on a death squad list.

Khaki reads at a monthly literary gathering of Iranians in Boston and was recently a feature at the New England Poetry Conference. His poems have appeared in Iranian literary journals including The Book Review, Par (Feather) and Thought and Imagination. He lives in New Hampshire and is working on the second collection of his Farsi poems. His first chapbook in English, Return, should be ready by the time he visits Stone Soup on the 26th. A sample poem is below:

Decay
Ala Khaki

Eyes burning,
stung by the harsh
foul fog of lies
surrounded by crocodile prophets
we are effortlessly drowning
in a shallow marsh.

September 19th: Carolyn Gregory Features

Following the Jack Powers birthday tribute on the 12th, Stone Soup will resume its regular 8-10 p.m schedule on Mondays, with a open-mike sign up at 7:30. Next Monday will feature local poet Carolyn Gregory.

Carolyn Gregory works at the VA Hospital in Boston and has published poetry and essays on classical music and photography in the American Poetry Review, Seattle Review, Yankee, Bellowing Ark, Art Times, Main Street Rag, Poesy, Ibbetson Street, Stylus and many others. Her second book, Open Letters, will be published in the next few months. She has done featured readings at Forsyth Chapel at Forest Hills Cemetery, St. John's Episcopal Church, Borders, Newton Arts Center and Stone Soup. She has been a member of the Jamaica Pond Poetry workshop for the past seven years.

Click here for a sample poem from Gregory in the latest online magazine Shampoo.

Monday September 12th: Jack Powers' Birthday

Doug Holder and Jack Powers

Tomorrow, come celebrate the birthday of Stone Soup's founder. Stone Soup staples will read poems of Jack that have been published over the venue's thirty-plus years of history. And Jack may read a few poems himself. Due to the special occasion, the start time for tomorrow is 7:30 p.m. instead of 8:00 p.m.

After the reading, there are plans to meet at Mother Anna's on 211 Hanover St in Boston's Haymarket area.

For further information on the Out Of The Blue, visit the website via the sidebar link or call (617) 354-5287. For further information about Mother Anna's, call (617) 523-8496.

Monday September 5th: Steven Selman Reads

This Monday Stone Soup presents poet Steven Selman, retired army colnel from Westford and author of the book Prehumous (As opposed to Posthumous).

Important Announcement, News

On September 12th, Stone Soup will be holding a special reading and celebration in honor of founder Jack Powers' Birthday. On that day, Stone Soup will be meeting at 7:30 p.m. instead of eight, as we will likely move the venue from the Out of The Blue Art Gallery to a restaurant in the North End. More information will come.

Here are the definite readers for September so far.

September 5th--Steve Selman.

September 19th--Carolyn Gregory.

Anne Carhart Reads Monday Night, August 29



Ann Carhart considers herself an old local Cambridge poet and psychologist but readily admits to having been born in Brookyn, falling in love with poetry while living in the Village and attending NYU. Her poetry has been published in anthologies like Cries of the Spirit and Out of The Blue Writers Unite as well as Heat City Literary Review, Earth Daughters, and The Hartford Courant.

The current artist in residence at the Noyes School of Rhythym in Portland Connecticut, she has read her poems at Harvard University, Blacksmith House, Episcopal Divinity School, Fireside Poetry Series, Ryles, and Out of The Blue, where she returns to this coming Monday.

Stone Soup starts at eight as usual. Be sure to show up a half hour early for the open mike sign-up.

Click here for a sample poem.

About The Venue

Jack Powers, founder. Photo by Bill Perrault.

Stone Soup was founded over thirty years ago by the Boston poet Jack Powers. Though it's origins are firmly footed in the Beats (highlights over the years have included Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and local figure John Wieners), the weekly gathering has included all styles of poetry at one time or another. With the publication of a recent anthology and the hosting and recording of the series being carried on faithfully by such notable figures as Bill Perrault, Stone Soup will continue to invite, seek out and feature the most interesting voices in the Boston area and beyond.

Stone Soup has been held in many places over the years. It's current home resides in the Fort Point Arts Community's Assemblage Gallery, located on 70(a) Sleeper Street, just across from the Barking Crab restaurant.We gather there every Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

To be considered for a Stone Soup feature contact us at stonesouppoetry@yahoo.com.