Word up.
I finally worded up.
Dropped some words at an open mic night.
The scene was Book and Bar. Hosted by Portsmouth Poet Laureate Mike Nelson and accompanied by an all-star band of notesmiths.
Your regular Thursday night open mic was interrupted to bring you a special program of readings from the poet laureate savant’s excellent new poetry zine — Good Fat.
I was humbled to be the final poem in the booklet.
The deal is you go up to the mic and nervously converse with the band about what kind of groove you might like them to lay down. I just told them the piece was a short, somber reflection on the insanity that is currently infecting our reality.
And I heard the drummer mention the word “dissonance,” which sounded perfect.
Standing at the mic, trying to take it in slow motion. Thanking Mike for the mic and the opportunity to read my words. Printed in ink. On paper. In a poetry zine. In front of a room full of cool people. One two three, go …
eclipse
the rupture in the universe
was scarcely foreseen
televisions flickered
with fraudulent heat
bickering trumped love
madness melted science
seeds of hate flourished
reality gasped for breath
so the gods turned off the sun
and said good night
# # #
Before they dimmed the lights on the open mic night, more words that I am tangled up with were unfurled by renaissance rap trumpet troubadour Chris Elliott.
Check out the video of Chris performing “When Does It End (if not Parkland)?”
One night not long ago we were brainstorming about guns, looking for a spark of creative inspiration amid the madness. Maybe rap out some meaningful rhymes. Chris’ genius is such that when I go, “you talk bout the Second Amendment,” he goes “I think we all know what those men meant” … and then looks at me like, “aw yeah, right?”
Which triggers, “And it wasn’t teens with AR-15s puttin kids face down on the pavement.”
In my kitchen. We brainstormed it some more and since then its been fun to witness its evolution from a spoken word rap piece to a jarring but also impactful video version to its latest incarnation.
One of my favorite of Chris’ verses is:
“It’s worse when perverse when hearses burst into the universes of young persons. Curses …”
Word up.
— John Breneman