Yes, I KNOW how long it's been... so let me distract you with some poetry:
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8/18, M-- 7pm, Open Mic at the Moon, at Crescent Moon Coffee (140 N 8th
St #10 Lower Level, Lincoln). For more information, contact cresce...@inebraska.com and check www.crescentmooncoffee.com/. (every Monday)
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8/20, W-- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at
Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by
Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007. (every Wednesday)
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8/20, W-- 8pm, Travis Davis invites you to "Poet Show It" at 1122 D St.
(Lincoln). Local writers come and read. Local people come and drink.
Coffee, Booze, Poetry, Fiction. Discovery. Discovery. Discovery. Go
here for the FaceBook link: Facebook.com. (1st and 3rd Wednesday)
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8/21, Th-- 7-11pm, Verbal Gumbo with Felicia Webster and Michelle
Troxclair at House of Loom (1012 S. 10th St., Omaha). $5, all ages until
9pm, 21+ after. Crabby about the political climate? Want some okra
change? Just want to discuss your relationshrimps--or the andouille
sausage in your life? Well, Verbal Gumbo is here with some hot, spicey
flava with a side o' rice and rhythm. This is the Spoken Word event that
promotes our rich diversity of culture and style. Soul session
immediately following by DJ Real. (3rd Thursday)
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8/23, Sa-- 7pm, Open Mic Poetry Night at A to Z Books (507 North
Jeffers, North Platte) -- ultra large bookstore. It's a fun, funny,
widely varied group. Poems can be short or long, funny or touching,
rhymed or free verse. Musicians too. George Lauby of The North Platte
Bulletin emcees and makes you feel comfortable. (2nd Friday, 4th
Saturday).
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8/24, Su-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at The Shark Club (2808
S 72nd St, Omaha). Online sign ups on our FB 24/7 for priority stage
time: facebook.com/Shootyourmouthoff. Check myspace.com/shootyourmouthoff
for interviews with features and more information. Mandy Morgan and
Jim Morrison will be your hosts as open mic poetry and comedy, featured
readers from Omaha's slam scene and free drinks prizes await you. The
best free show in Omaha! (every Sunday)
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8/25, M-- 7-8pm, WriteLife Presents:
Writers' Open Mic at The PS Collective (6056 Maple St., Omaha). There
will be 10 minute slots available for writers to sign up to read their
work. This can be poetry, an excerpt from your published book, a piece
that you're working on...anything goes, as long as you wrote it! Not a
writer, but want to catch a glimpse of local creativity and talent? Stop
by and be entertained! (last Monday)
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8/25, M-- 7pm, Open Mic at the Moon, at Crescent Moon Coffee (140 N 8th
St #10 Lower Level, Lincoln). For more information, contact cresce...@inebraska.com and check www.crescentmooncoffee.com/. (every Monday)
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8/27, W-- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at
Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by
Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007. (every Wednesday)
- 8/29, F-- 7:30pm, The Harvest: Bring in the Crop Reading at
the Petshop (2725 N 62nd St, Omaha), featuring writers who once
belonged to UNO's Crop Organization (student writers group). Drinks and
snacks provided. This reading is free and open to the public. See
facebook event for details: facebook.com/events/584711364983294.
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8/31, Su-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at The Shark Club (2808
S 72nd St, Omaha). Online sign ups on our FB 24/7 for priority stage
time: facebook.com/Shootyourmouthoff. Check myspace.com/shootyourmouthoff
for interviews with features and more information. Mandy Morgan and
Jim Morrison will be your hosts as open mic poetry and comedy, featured
readers from Omaha's slam scene and free drinks prizes await you. The
best free show in Omaha! (every Sunday)
American Life in Poetry: Column 490
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
The ancient Chinese poets used to say that at some point in each poem
the poet ought to lift his (or her) eyes, ought to look beyond the
surface of the present into something deeper and more meaningful. Here
is just such a poem by Linda M. Hasselstrom, who lives in South Dakota.
Planting Peas
It’s not spring yet, but I can’t
wait anymore. I get the hoe,
pull back the snow from the old
furrows, expose the rich dark earth.
I bare my hand and dole out shriveled peas,
one by one.
I see my grandmother’s hand,
doing just this, dropping peas
into gray gumbo that clings like clay.
This moist earth is rich and dark
as chocolate cake.
Her hands cradle
baby chicks; she finds kittens in the loft
and hands them down to me, safe beside
the ladder leading up to darkness.
I miss
her smile, her blue eyes, her biscuits and gravy,
but mostly her hands.
I push a pea into the earth,
feel her hands pushing me back. She’ll come in May,
she says, in long straight rows,
dancing in light green dresses.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (
www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of
Poetry
magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Poem copyright ©1984 by Linda M. Hasselstrom;
www.windbreakhouse.com.
Her most recent book of poems, written with Twyla Hansen, is
Dirt Songs,
The Backwaters Press, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Linda M.
Hasselstrom and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The
introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do
not accept unsolicited manuscripts.