Though there were only six people in attendance, I have to say last night’s “Renewal” themed Poetry Social was a major success. I began the evening with a writing prompt, as usual, using the soundtrack to the movie, Map of the World. After every few minutes, though, I instructed everyone to pass what they had written to the person next to them, and informed them that their neighbor would continue creating their poem. I could tell a few of them had never done a writing exercise like this and were a little hesitant or nervous, but everyone was willing to participate. After three or four times passing, we developed some nice verse and took turns around the room sharing what we had come up with as a group.

The second part of the evening was the “open mic” reading, in which I opened it up to the participants to share whatever they had brought. I was impressed with the eagerness and the vulnerability with which some of the participants read. One was hesitant to share some poetry that she thought was sad, but with a little encouraging push from the group, she opened up her laptop and read. This, I think, has been one of my goals and purposes of the Poetry Social–to provide a place for people to share, not just their poetry, but themselves and to meet people with similar interests and passions. As a closing to the evening, we were treated with song–one of the participants volunteered to sing a song he wrote, “An Inconvenient Truth.” (The title, he explained, was inspired by Al Gore’s reference to global warming).

I’m really looking forward to next month’s on the them of “Passions.” In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite “patchwork” poems we created:

The Circle

Eyes open for the first time,
wide and seeing,
into the newly unknown.

I’ve been here once before,
longing, learning—though
now I am grown

and my heart keeps on yearning
for people I’ve known and
things of the past.
I dream of them often,
these people of love,
these people of light,

but I must go on and complete the circle
as old and ingrained
as the passage of time
so someday people I know now will
think of me

as they touch the things I’ve owned
and yearn
and see.

     Poetry Social participants
     1/18/2012