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. February the 13th marks the first Stone Soup feature of open miker and author Kevin Mahoney.
Kevin Mahoney was born in the fall of 1965. Nothing special happened to him until the age of twelve. It was then he read the book A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
freshman year in High School. After reading that book, he wrote his first poem. The poem was awful, but he was determined to get better.
After a brief yet unbelievable sensual affair with his High School English teacher he went on to pursue careers in food service, emergency care, broadcasting, sea air rescue, carpet installing, clown balloon delivery service, chimney sweeping and ultimately Radiology Information Technology. He was a principle writer and occasional performer with the theater troupe Catbox Cabaret in the 1990's.
He has been reading poetry, in public, since 1992. He is a three time Cantab featured poet, a cross dresser (please don't tell his mom) and an all around swell guy. In the spring of 2005 he published his first collection of poetry, Serendipity is a Son of a Bitch. A sample poem is included below.
My Best Christmas Ever
I awoke tired, cold, naked and dirty
handcuffed to a nativity scene.
It was not the first time,
and, God forgive me, I was certain
that it would not be the last.
The villagers walked past me
some in awe, most in horror on their
way to midnight mass.
"I’m not mad," I screamed,
"I know the difference between a hawk and
a handsaw."
A light snow began to fall
creating a charming scene
unless of course if you were not looking at me
wallowing in the mud.
I did not know how I had come to be
handcuffed to that nativity scene
nor did any of the passerby’s ask
or offer to help.
For all they knew or I for that matter,
I was as happy as anyone could be in that
moment in time.
The church bell rang.
Midnight,
12 am,
Christmas morning,
Peace on earth, good will toward men.
A dog pissed on me.
