Your Poetry Menu and American Life in Poetry: Column 523

[Matt Mason]

Let's not ease into National Poetry Month, let's dive! In the larger world of poetry, YOU can make a difference. Buying a book of poetry helps publishers and authors, if all of you reading this take 10 minutes and fifty dollars, you can have an impact by buying a book of poetry from each of your 3 favorite living poets (or if you already own all the books by that poet, good on you! (but check out #4 on your list... )).

• 3/30, M-- 7pm, Open Mic at the Moon, at Crescent Moon Coffee (140 N 8th St #10 Lower Level, Lincoln) featuring Greg Kosmicki. For more information, contact cresce...@inebraska.com and check www.crescentmooncoffee.com/. (every Monday)

National Poetry Month (AKA: April)

• 4/1, W-- 7pm, poets Michael Skau and Steve Langan read at UNO's Fine Arts Gallery (UNO campus).

• 4/3, F-- 7:30-10pm, Wingmakers Book Launch Party and Rite of Spring Poetry Reading at House of Loom (1012 S 10th St, Omaha). Come celebrate the release of Brity Cordera (Doane)'s Wingmakers published by Pinyon. In addition, the night features the incredible work of Todd Robinson, Otis XII, Natasha Kessler-Rains, and Britny. See more at The Facebook Eent Page. This event is free and open to the public.

• 4/6, M-- 7-9pm, (New night this month only) TAPESTRIES at Carver Bank (2416 Lake St, Omaha). A showcase featuring 4 poets, spoken word artists, storytellers and rappers performing conscious edutaining original sets. (1st Sunday).

• 4/5, 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)

• 4/6, 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)

• 4/7, Tu-- 5:30pm and 7:30pm, Semi-Final bouts for Louder Than a Bomb: Great Plains at the Durham Museum (801 South 10th St, Omaha). For more information on Louder Than a Bomb, see: LTABGreatPlains.org.

• 4/7, Tu-- 7pm, Tuesdays with Writers at The South Mill (4736 Prescott, just west of 48th and Prescott, Lincoln). Featured readers TBA. There is an open mic following the feature. For more information, contact Deborah McGinn at dmc...@lps.org (1st Tuesday of the month)

• 4/8, W-- 5:30pm and 7:30pm, Semi-Final bouts for Louder Than a Bomb: Great Plains at the Joslyn Art Museum (2200 Dodge St, Omaha). For more information on Louder Than a Bomb, see: LTABGreatPlains.org.

• 4/8, 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)

• 4/10, F-- 7pm, Open Mic Poetry Night at Espresso Shoppe (419 North Dewey St, North Platte). 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).

• 4/11, Sa-- 6:30pm, the Second Unitarian Church's Live and Silent Auction featuring poet and musician Jim Coppoc (3012 S 119th St, Omaha). Free, RSVP and see more information at: www.2uomaha.org.

• 4/11, Sa-- 7:30pm, the OM Center Poetry Slam and open mic (1216 Howard, Omaha). It's the longest-running slam in Omaha, often featuring some of the best performance poets in the nation. Open mic starts at 7:30 followed by the slam; sign up BEFORE 7:30 as signup is limited. Hosted by Zedeka Poindexter. $7 suggested donation. Call 402/345-5078 or go to OmahaSlam.com for more information. (2nd Saturday of every month)

• 4/12, 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)

• 4/13, 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)

• 4/15, W-- 6pm, poet and novelist Darlyn Finch Kuhn will sign and read from her debut novel Sewing Holes (Twisted Road Publications, $13.95) at The Bookworm Bookstore (90th and Center Sts, Omaha). A pained, and sometimes funny, love letter to friends, faith and family, Sewing Holes tells the story of Tupelo Honey Lee, a headstrong girl struggling to find her place in the world. Darlyn's poetry has appeared in magazines and literary journals and has been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac.

• 4/15, 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)

• 4/16, 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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American Life in Poetry: Column 523

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Some of us will be eating ham on Easter, and I thought I’d offer you a poem about a champion pig, by Jill Breckenridge, a Minnesotan who has written a series of poems based on that state’s fair.  Her most recent book of poems is Sometimes, Nodin Press, 2015.

Pretty Ricky

He’s 1200 pounds of pink pork covered by black

bristles stiff enough to needle and sew with,

Pretty Ricky, all six feet of him spread

out, asleep, no fancy dancer, neither twirler

nor prancer, just eats and sleeps, the biggest

boar at the Fair, oblivious to gawkers, smirkers,

cholesterol, or weight watchers, fat off the hoof,

fat lying flat, good only for breeding and eating,

he won’t even stand to show off all the pork cuts

displayed on the poster behind him: ham, it says,

from the butt, oldest meat of civilized man;

kabobs from the shoulder, roasted on swords

by early Asian nomads; spareribs, sausage,

and bacon from the belly. Pretty Ricky urges

me to swear off pork, but it’s lunchtime and my

stomach wanders off to a foot-long or a brat with

‘kraut. I think twice, three times, waffle back

and forth between meat and a veggie wrap, as,

in front of me, many meals stretch out, dozing.

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 ©2009 by Jill Breckenridge, “Pretty Ricky,” from Low Down and Coming On: A Feast of Delicious and Dangerous Poems About Pigs, James P. Lenfestey, Ed., (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010). Poem reprinted by permission of Jill Breckenridge and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 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.

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          Executive Director, Nebraska Writers Collective: newriters.org
                            My homepage: Matt.MidVerse.com
                    Find Nebraska poetry info at: PoetryMenu.com