Your Poetry Menu and American Life in Poetry: Column 441

[Matt Mason]

• 9/3, Tu-- 7pm, Tuesdays with Writers at The South Mill (4736 Prescott, just west of 48th and Prescott, Lincoln). Featured readers Karen Gettert Shoemaker and Twyla Hansen. Twyla's poetry books include Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet and Potato Soup, 2012 and 2004 Nebraska Book Award winners. Shoemaker is the author of The Meaning of Names and Night Sounds and Other Stories and has received a Nebraska Center for the Book Award and Independent Artist Fellowships from the Nebraska Arts Council. There is an open mic following the feature. For more information, contact Deborah McGinn at dmc...@lps.org (1st Tuesday of the month)

• 9/3, Tu-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at Mojo's Smokehouse (2110 S 67th St #108, Omaha). The last Tuesday of every month has the poetry slam! 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 Tuesday, with shows at The Shark Club every Sunday)

• 9/4, W-- 6:30-7:30pm, Stir - Making Sense of Faith: Exploring Faith through our Senses at First Christian Church (6630 Dodge St.) Tonight's theme is Hearing. Tonight's scripture: Exodus 3:1-15 and features: Actor, Greg Harries; Poet, Andrew Ek; Musician, Tara Vaughan. The event is free and open to the public.

• 9/4, 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)

• 9/4, 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)

• 9/5, Th-- 3:30-4:15pm, Poets and Pianos at the Play Me, I'm Yours street piano at 24th and L Streets (Omaha). Students from South high and other local poets will read poems, play music, enjoy this great public art. This piano was designed by Bill Hoover in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective.

• 9/7, Sa-- 4-5pm, Poets and Pianos at the Play Me, I'm Yours street piano at 24th and L Streets (Omaha). Students from South high and other local poets will read poems, play music, enjoy this great public art. This piano was designed by Bill Hoover in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective.

• 9/7, Sa-- 2-4pm, The John G Neihardt Foundation presents a beer tasting event as part of Bancroft's Harvest Fest celebration in the Community Building on Main Street (Bancroft). This event is a fund-raiser for the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site to support its programs and educational projects. Admission is $10 at the door. Participants must be 21 (ID required). For more information call 1-888-777-4667 or 402/648-3388 or e-mail at neih...@gpcom.net.

• 9/8, 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, with shows at Mojo's Smokehouse every Tuesday)

• 9/9, 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)

• 9/10, Tu-- 9pm-1:30am, it's Shoot Your Mouth Off at Mojo's Smokehouse (2110 S 67th St #108, Omaha). The last Tuesday of every month has the poetry slam! 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 Tuesday, with shows at The Shark Club every Sunday)

• 9/11, W-- 11:45am-1pm, "Wednesday Words," at The KANEKO's KANEKO-UNO Library (1111 Jones St., Omaha) featuring award-winning NE poets and fiction writers as well as the winners of the Individual Artist's Fellowship Awards from the The Nebraska Arts Council, as part of our "Braided River" series. Bring your lunch and enjoy the show. Today features Marjorie Saiser. (second Wednesday)

• 9/11, W-- 7pm Marjorie Saiser reads at Northeast Community College (801 E Benjamin Ave, Norfolk).

• 9/11, 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)

• 9/12, Th-- 7pm, United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is guest lecturer for the Creighton University Center for Health Policy and Ethics in the Witherspoon Concert Hall at Joslyn Art Museum (2200 Dodge St, Omaha). Professor Trethewey's presentation will focus on her poetry in which she examines the intersection between public and private history. The lecture is free and open to the public, donations are encouraged. Online registration is required and can be accessed beginning July 29th at chpe.creighton.edu.

• 9/13, F-- 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).

• 9/14, Sa-- 1-3pm, Omaha Public Library and the Nebraska Writers Collective team up for the 2nd Saturday Poetry Workshop, this month led by Milwaukee poet Dasha Kelly at the Swanson Branch Library (9101 West Dodge Rd, Omaha). Dasha has performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam,and was listed two years in a row on OnMilwaukee.com's list of "Top 100 Coolest Milwaukeeans." This monthly workshop is open to all ages and will work in crafting spoken word poetry. (2nd Saturday, different OPL branch each month)

• 9/14, Sa-- 7:30pm, the OM Center Poetry Slam and open mic (1216 Howard, Omaha). Tonight features Milwaukee's Dasha Kelly! 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 Matt Mason. $7 suggested donation. Call 402/345-5078 or go to OmahaSlam.com for more information. (2nd Saturday of every month)

• 9/15, 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, with shows at Mojo's Smokehouse every Tuesday)

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American Life in Poetry: Column 441

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

April Lindner is a poet living in Pennsylvania who has written a number of fine poems about parenting. Here’s an example that shows us just one of the many hazards of raising a child.

Dog Bite

The worst for him was his friend turned wolf,

and the blood that splattered as he ran. The worst

for us: the hospital, his upper lip tugged back

to show the gash—the flesh halved deeply,

cleanly—while I hold him for the needle

that rubs pain out. He submits

to the quick stitch, the thread black

against pink skin, calm now he sees

the doctor can be trusted, his voice

soothing, his face clean shaven,

the clues that signal kindness to a child.

He’s worried, though, about his pet

who didn’t mean it, Mom. His voice is flat.

He knows the months he’s tried to woo this dog

were over when it leapt for his throat

and caught his mouth. The scars, at least,

will be invisible. At home, he’ll sleep,

big boy between his parents, till he’s sure

no beast will tear into his dreams. And we

will want him there, our bodies makeshift walls.

We who led the stranger to our home,

fixed him a bowl, taught him to sleep

under our blankets, we who taught our son

to rub the muzzle that sheathes the teeth.

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 ©2012 by April Lindner from her most recent book of poems,This Bed Our Bodies Shaped, Able Muse Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of April Lindner and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2013 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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