August Open Mic–First Call

crow9 Comments

First call for the monthly Open Mic Invitation. I’ve been asked to maybe put up a little How-To on recording and posting your audio. I’ll definitely do that later, but for now, the initial call must be made.

Join the thundering herd of vocal poets whose voices WILL NOT BE SILENCED. Or just share something fun with the rest of the poetry community here on WordPress. See below for the general guidelines.

And don’t feel limited to entering only once. Fill up this page with your melodic metrical musings.

DON’T MAKE ME USE ASSONANCE A SECOND TIME.

Here are the steps you need to take (reduced to three for a limited time):

  1. Record yourself reading one of your own works.
  2. Post it on your site (or Soundcloud or any other audio hosting site).
  3. Include a link to this post in your post;
    OR comment below;
    OR send me a message using the contact form.

I will post a link with your name and poem title RIGHT HERE and on the Open Mic page (it’s above in the menu).

Remember, it’s an open mic invitation. NOT a challenge.

Also, if you can think of a way to improve the format, I’m all ears.

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Poet Rummager (you know, the fabulous Rose)
50 Word Story: In the Distance

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Pleasant Street
I THOUGHT DEATH HAD BETTER MANNERS

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crow
these are the angels (audio)

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crow
carousel (audio)

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Poet Rummager (you know, the fabulous Rose)
Obsession

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crow
summerless blood (audio)
summerless blood (poem)

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hvac (20160801)

crow13 Comments

the aerospace building
looks like a
travel agency
from the sidewalk

but as i pass
i notice the hissing
and an angled pipe
slithering from the concrete
as some kind of
compressed gas escapes

the wall, nicotine-stained yellow
like mom’s fingers
grass dances around
the bare patch of earth
below the spewing mouth
and there is a whiff of sulphur

i try to hold my breath
but as i pass
i wonder where that air
is coming from

an employee desiccating lounge
where drones are slowly
dried and their oxygen vented
to the outside world?

some lab where experimental fuels
burn out of control
and in an attempt to save the company
toxic fumes are funneled
to the damned, unsuspecting public?

i quicken my steps
it’s probably just the hvac system
i tell myself
yes, that’s all that it is

tin toy (20160731)

crow8 Comments

step one is inserting the key
in the back
and having someone wind you up
every goddamned day
tighten that spring
so you have enough energy
to make it
until the next wind up

i don’t know who designed us
to have these holes
in our backs
when the holes are in our hearts

and when will the key fit into my chest
so i can wind it myself

or not

carousel (20160729)

crow14 Comments

the last night of the carnival
we found a carousel filled
with skeletal horses

the operator insisted
from inside a shadowed booth
that no tickets were necessary
everyone could ride

we watched silent children get on
but never off
as it spun slowly around
a single rotation
silent but for the sound
of gears, never any music
never a ringing bell
for the capture
of the brass ring

only dusty footprints

titans (20160728)

crow13 Comments

there were titans once
hecatonchir with fifty heads
and one hundred arms each

if i had one hundred arms
i would never stop
embracing you

if i had one hundred hands
i would want all five hundred fingers
tracing circles on your skin

if i had fifty mouths
fifty pairs of lips
would kiss you

if had had fifty tongues
each would whisper
my love to you

all the titans are gone
and i have only two hands
and one mouth

i hope it is enough
though you deserve
more

caught without umbrellas (20160727)

crow12 Comments

neither of us thought to bring
an umbrella
though all the signs were there
dark, sullen clouds in your eyes
and the thunder of silence
rolling between us

i pull my coat around me
and you do the same
with your own coat
self-comfort without any warmth

i make an umbrella for you
out of my bones
stretch my skin across the ribs
and this rain falls
red as a river of regrets
and never gets you wet

falls as red as everything that
ever entered or exited my heart
my cloud-shaped heart
and you are untouched

——

——

for Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #41: In the rain
Franz Marc In the Rain(Im Regen) (1912)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons