Your Poetry Menu and American Life in Poetry: Column 508

[Matt Mason]

Enjoy all the holidays, everyone, and don't forget: poetry books by Nebraska authors make the best presents.

• 12/15, 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)

• 12/16, Tu-- 7pm, Imaginary Gardens poetry reading at Mr. Toad's (1002 Howard St, Omaha) with Matt Mason and Natasha Kessler-Rains. Organized by Michael Skau.

• 12/17, 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)

• 12/17, 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)

• 12/18, 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)

• 12/19, F-- 7-10pm, Celebrate the inaugural issue of Flyover magazine, Omaha's creative culture publication at the Omaha Healing Arts Center 1216 (Howard St, Omaha). See more at www.flyovermagazine.com/.

• 12/21, 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)

• 12/22, 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)

• 12/27, Sa-- 7pm, Open Mic Poetry Night at A to Z Books (115 West 4th St, 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).

• 12/28, 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)

• 12/29, 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)

• 12/30, Tu-- 5-7pm, The ROUX at Love's Jazz and Art Center (2510 North 24th Street, Omaha). A youth run spoken word open mic that allows young people to freely express themselves in a safe place with community love and support. Presented by Verbal Gumbo, the Roux is the base to any good gumbo mix. Bring some young people out during their winter break to perform or just to come listen to other young folks share what's on their hearts, minds and souls. Youth groups from all over the city are welcome. Suggested donation $1. Organized by Ms. Felicia aka Withlove,Felicia. See the Facebook page for more information.

American Life in Poetry: Column 508

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

It seems we’re born with a need for stories, for hearing them and telling them. Here’s an account of just one story, made remarkable in part by the teller’s aversion to telling it. Poet Mary Avidano lives in Nebraska.

City Lights

My father, rather a quiet man,

told a story only the one time,

if even then—he had so little

need, it seemed, of being understood.

Intervals of years, his silences!

Late in his life he recalled for us

that when he was sixteen, his papa

entrusted to him a wagonload

of hogs, which he was to deliver

to the train depot, a half-day’s ride

from home, over a hilly dirt road.

Lightly he held the reins, light his heart,

the old horses, as ever, willing.

In town at noon he heard the station-

master say the train had been delayed,

would not arrive until that evening.

The boy could only wait. At home they’d

wait for him and worry and would place

the kerosene lamp in the window.

Thus the day had turned to dusk before

he turned about the empty wagon,

took his weary horses through the cloud

of fireflies that was the little town.

In all his years he’d never seen those

lights—he thought of this, he said, until

he and his milk-white horses came down

the last moonlit hill to home, drawn as

from a distance toward a single flame.

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 ©2013 by The Backwaters Press. Mary Avidano's most recent book of poems is The Zebra’s Friend and Other Poems, 2008. Poem reprinted from The Untidy Season: An Anthology of Nebraska Women Poets, The Backwaters Press, 2013, by permission of Mary Avidano 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.

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          Executive Director, Nebraska Writers Collective: newriters.org
                            My homepage: Matt.MidVerse.com
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