The last Saturday of each month is Open Link night at
dversepoets.com ....free to choose
any topic - I was too late putting this together last week for Victoria's prompt about celebrating
pubs and the anniversary of this website, but here it is:
Warmth seethes from inside the bar,
flowers in a planter tickle noses
pressing against outside window panes
Inside, time worn wood buffed
to gold highlights,
comfy chairs by a fire, tables full,
usually regulars from everywhere arriving,
filling the space with electricity
Open Mike Night is about to begin
Bundled in casual dress,
people order their preferred beverage;
some find the ear of the bartender
Sound of paper shuffling -
some sheets float to the floor
to be picked up
while chairs are moved
to best advantage
Comradery and poetry are served here!
interpreters not needed,
for it's understood we are here
to meet and greet,
absorb nourishment for the soul
Microphone tested, throats clear
as we listen for each voice to read,
enact, intone their recently conceived works,
revealing new ways of saying what we feel
Sonnets, haiku, triolets presented;
maudlin metaphors, steeped alliteration,
thoughts for food -
not unlike food for thought
Here, word groups are given birth,
find their way through the vessel of
hope and reason,
forming a whole poem
Free verse or rhyme,
prose poetry
all to be tasted, savored,
swallowed and digested -
to resonate in minds and hearts,
ears tuned for slightest hint of irony;
eyes take in gestures
unseen on a blog -
Intimacy descends because
he reads what you feel, but could not
find the right words for;
what she writes brings you to tears
Gee, I wish I had written that..
Kinfolk we are,
toasting to the wee hours,
like fresh wisps of air we breathe in deeply,
and release with a sigh
There's sunshine to grab
on a mostly cloudy eve
Listen....
how words are laced into stanzas,
become tonic to cure what ails
A man expresses new-found joy
in a good shepherd dog;
another, his courageous flights of fantasy,
or, science fiction, curiosity,
sorrow and pain
One spills a secret, not to judge
There is unmatched beauty
in profound emotions described,
pressure released by letting go
of internal woes, or forever love
Discover empathy....
hearing poets read their writing
ripping open the seams of
the human condition
Words echo in a refrain from
a stream of consciousness
Poetry becomes you,
as in easy...and inspiring
Often it can be dripping, bleeding,
seething to a point where the doors expand;
poems can uplift us
just as delightfully..
or thrust their essence at us
in multiple ways:
a river rages, a tide pools,
an ocean rocks us
Responses begin as baby raindrops that
swell ...
until they must burst into smiles
or tears
We've heard the best..and the worst,
and in serious consternation,
we've faced our fears
We have more questions,
more insight, but our thirst
for words is never sated
Applause, we leave,,,
we write and return again
to share
