Evansville Poets Stars at May Last Sunday Poetry
We had three featured readers — in a way — at this month’s Bloomington Writers Guild “Last Sunday Poetry and Open Mic” (cf. April 28, et al.) all from an active group of poets from Evansville, Indiana, at the southern tip of the state. And two, anyway, in the flesh in spite of storms in the afternoon, with more threatened for later evening, but for the 7 to 8:30 session practically sunny outside the after-hours Morgenstern Books venue.
First up was Nick Wentzil, perhaps better known by his nickname “Frick,” substituting for originally scheduled Teresa Roy, himself an up and coming poet with his first full-size book, MOONLIT 101, “a collection of mostly love and heartbreak poems and haiku,” currently in print. Leading off with two from his book, he continued with an assortment of newer poems he’s been working on, mostly on subjects other than of love and loss, including one from Editor/MC Hiromi Yoshida’s recent anthology, STORMWASH (see April 19, et al.), interspersed by groupings of informal haiku-like short poems.
He was followed by Jonathan S. Baker with fourteen books published and host and organizer of Evansville’s long-time “Poetry Speaks” reading series, starting with a tip of the hat to Teresa Roy, who had been unable to make it, with a poem by her, “Book Burning.” This was followed by two pieces they’d had in STORMWASH, one from DON’T KILL TONY BREWER, their and Hiromi’s tribute to the so-named Writers Guild notable, and a group of sometimes scurrilous (but always in a good-humored way) poems from their 2022 book, COCK OF THE WALK.
As with the previous month, we skipped the break then and went directly to the “Open Mic” portion with fully eleven walk-ons, all of whom this time (having been forewarned that time slots should be kept to two or three minutes) were able to read. Of these, I came directly in the center, at number 6 slot, with a tribute of sorts to a near-legendary mid-twentieth century American icon, Batman.
jamesdorrwriter 
Leave a Comment