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Hello Poets & Poetry Lovers!
I sure have missed the poetry (and you poets, also!) these past few months. As some of you know, my husband and I have been staying on the coast, working on the cottage almost all the time. It's coming along. We're hoping to have it finished in a couple of more months. There is still so much destruction in the area from the hurricanes, but life is slowly returning to normal.
Thank you for your patience with the lack of updates and newsletters. I check in when I am home, so leave me an email or a message on Yahoo if you need to reach me.
Our newsletter will feature a spotlight on one of our poets each month. Our first poet is the founder of the original Cafe in Excite, my dear friend, Ninian. If you have never seen this lady's work, be sure to check it out in this issue. I will also have a link to the spotlight in the Voodoo room.
If you would like to have these newsletters emailed to you, let me know:
I recently lost my email list (I kept it on my harddrive instead of in my address book....NOT smart!!), so I'll be starting a new list. If you were getting the newsletter before, you still need to let me know that you would like to continue.
Bri
Write to Us
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Write to us concerning anything about the newsletter and we will respond. Feel free to let us know any additional features you'd like to see the newsletter.
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Our Own:
I got an email from one of our poets the other day with some great news. This from whoopeecat:
"I never realized when I started writing with you guys back in the day around 1997ish on line, that I would keep going this far with the perfromance poetry gig. I have started my own slam in a new venue in Dallas that celebrated it's one year anniversary this Wednesday, been on the finals stage with some of the best poets in the world that I love to no end, attended my third slam masters meeting this past week in Austin and got elected to the Executive Council for Poetry Slam Inc! Crazy!
Here's the next kick. Rock Baby & I have committed to hosting a ten team invitational poetry slam on Sunday August 6th, 2006. This is the Sunday before Nationals begin in Austin (9th). We have commitments from Palo Alto, San Jose, Denver, NorAZ (AZ), Mesa AZ, Albuquerque, Columbus OH, Boston (Cantab), Dallas Clearview and Ft Worth. Pugsley's Library (my gig) will host. We also have 6 teams on the wait list that would like to join in if someone drops out and will be traveling through Dallas that day. We will be doing an all you can eat BBQ fundraiser for $6 a head that afternoon with a Slam that night."
Congrats goes out to Whoop!!
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Voodoo News
I want to thank Lady Kendred for helping me so much with the room while I've been away on Open Mic Nights nights. I'm thrilled that the Spiral Matrix poetry group wants to join us at Voodoo in the Poetry room. We should be having reads every night soon!
The new schedule for Open Mic Nights:
Tuesday Night Open Mic with Bri, 9 PM, central
**Wednesday Night Open Mic with Aladysheart, 9 PM central
Thursday Night Open Mic with Gisela, 9 PM central
**Saturday Night Open Mic with Stellablu, 9 PM central
Sunday Night Open Mic with Lady Kendred
**Coming Soon!!
If you haven't downloaded Voodoochat yet, you can find it at:
Voodoochat.com
After you have downloaded the chat client, you can enter our
Cafe through the software (Voodoo Village server, Poetry Cafe).
Be sure to also register a name, or you can
enter as a guest. If you already have Voodoochat downloaded,
be sure to update to the newest version. It has many cool new
features, including Tabs, which we will be using during the
poetry reads. All poetry is read on the Chat tab, and everything
else (chitchat) will take place on the offtopic tab. If you don't
have voodoo downloaded yet, it will make more sense to you
after you load it, and visit the room.
Bring your poetry, and let's READ!!
Featured Poet
It is my sincere pleasure to introduce to you our first monthly poet in the spotlight. As many of you know, Ninian began the original poetry cafe in Excite many years ago. But that is only one side of Ninian.
Ninian is the mother of three boys. She lives in Canada in a city that
has six months of winter and six months of bad hockey weather. In May
of 2006, she will realise one of her longtime dreams and be certified
as
a K-12 school teacher. When she's not sitting in a hockey arena or on
the side of a baseball diamond cheering on her sons, Ninian writes
poetry and fiction. She has twice won the Writer's Circle Prize at the
University of Winnipeg.
We in the online poetry community owe much to this wonderful lady. Without further ado, the poetry of Ninian:
Fetching Leaves
A week of rain has me feeling trapped so,
I pack the camera and you,
a small boy not quite five,
into the car, despite your protests,
setting off out of the city.
The rain mists windshield and the wipers beat
a metronome for the quiet song on the radio.
You press your forehead to the cold window
and watch the river. The silence at the old stone
church is eerie. We pause at the gates,
holding hands, then start to walk the graveyard.
You explore, and I read the tombstones aloud.
I let you wander ahead, listening to the inner voice
that keeps me from over-protecting until
my heart stops at a headstone
1848-1852
and I call your name. You turn to see
I haven’t moved, smile and continue.
My hair is a wild thing unfettered,
wind-whipped around my face
hiding my tears. Your eyes of wonder
admire the cracks in the wall, trace numbers
in the tombstones with your small finger,
counting; while I trace the numbers
in my mind and pray for your future.
My camera hangs lifeless around my neck.
Our only pictures of the day captured
in the minds of a small boy,
not yet five,
and his mummy.
© Ninian
Chasing Trains
I stood on the platform,
the cold wind biting my cheeks to rosy red,
and watched down the tracks for the train
I felt would never arrive.
When it did, would I have the strength,
the force of will, to train my feet
in the right direction?
The god-awful impulse to simply
fall like
fluttering
flakes
filling the sky,
and land delicately on the metal rail,
listening for the final clickety-clack
that would still my heart.
And what then?
Who’d remain behind?
Picking up my pieces.
Putting back the carelessly discarded
remains
of
me.
Who’d train
them? Those who
keep me
pinned
to the track?
clickety-clack.
© Ninian
The Cost of Time
Come, spend the summer.
Blue and gold days,
trading shiny copper pennies for sweets and sours
languid in the midday heat.
The teasing sun
playing hide 'n seek behind the clouds.
Rainbows arcing from the crystal sprinkler
icy cold on our golden brown skin.
Fingers sticky from popsicles and watermelon
Or sugar dipped rhubarb.
The world was a different place
seen through the heat distortion over the sidewalk.
Endless days of bikes and roller skates
Iridescent bubbles catching a passing breeze
or snapping thick dark ones in the tar on the street.
Inevitable thunderstorms brought rain turning to hail
giggling under our garbage can lids collecting stones
big as golf balls.
The days wound down to August,
the summer spent, our pockets emptied,
the smell of new paper, rubber erasers and pencil shavings
getting us ready for the new year of school.
The days, it seems, no longer stretch endlessly
from June to September, the gap is bridged in the wink of an eye.
No time now for running through the sprinkler or blowing bubbles,
tar makes no sound when it is driven over.
Spring skips to winter so fast I hardly notice
And popsicles get messy when they melt.
But,
You said those magic words;
"Come spend the summer",
and time stood still.
© Ninian
Early Morning Coffee
We casually drift from sensuality
to laughter. With so much
to say, we speak
over each other.
I close my eyes, captivated
while you tell me
a story.
As I listen to you
from my vantage point
on the loveseat,
curled up under my blanket,
we bridge the space
between us.
Your warm words
wash over me
like a spindrift of love.
Your voice,
my only caress.
© Ninian
I'd like to thank Ninian for being our first poet in the spotlight.
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Write On Forum:
If you haven't found your way to our poetry boards yet, I hope you will now! We've been in existence for a little over a year and currently have 206 members. Each poet has his/her own folder for poetry, and there are also many other discussion and challenge areas. You can visit and read as a guest or join the boards and also post! You can find us at:
Write On!
See the last 20 posts here.
PoetryCafes.com:
The most recent site submissions are:
Title: Ardent!
Description: Ardent!, a journal of poetry and art from Poetry in the Arts, annually offers an editor's choice award for best poetry and art submission.
Executive Editor: JL Johnson
Title: Ascent Aspirations Magazine
Description: Magazine published poetry, short fiction, essays and book reviews quarterly online and semi annually in print
Editor: David Fraser
Title: Guerilla Poetics
Description: Poetry and Prose by Wayne Mason
Title: Bizz Zoc7's Cipher
Description: Come into B7's Cipher, journey through rooms made of dreams; sign into his guestbook, and take him on an ethereal escapade in your cipher.
Author: Bizz Zoc7
Title: Shumandreams
Description: Mr. Albert states that he plays with spoken sound and language. "I view spoken sound as movement, the movement of articulators and the movement of textures and overtones. I try to reflect the movements of things in the movements of spoken sound. I try to weave the movements of spoken sound with the meanings of words in search of a heightened form of language."
Webmaster: Jonathan Albert
Title: Underground Window
Description: Monthly poetry/short fiction/photo essays/reviews ezine.
Editors-in-Chief: Lee Vowell & Todd Vandenberg
Title: And They All Rejoiced! Cendrine Marrouat's Poetry.
Description: Poetry from the soul in english and french.
Title: zafusy
Description: Experimental poetry, prose ezine and journal. Contains a wealth of poetry links and regularly lists poetry events - focus is on the surreal and disjointed. Editor: Jody Porter
Be sure to check them out!
Thanks goes out to Nightscribe who recently ran a test on poetrycafes.com for broken links. They will be fixed asap!
Bulletin Board
We are trying to find the poets who have been a part of Ninian's Poetry Cafe & Boards, Voodoo Cafe & Excite. Help us find our old friends and new friends by forwarding this newsletter to anyone you think would enjoy it! Thanks!
Gemini Ink in San Antonio, Texas announces its summer literary festival, City Vision/ Urban Words on July 7 - 23, 2006.
Whoop and I took some of their classes a couple of summers ago, and really enjoyed them. Check it out:
Gemini Ink
Audio Poetry
In this section, I'd like to post audio poetry from our poets. If you have one you'd like to submit, send it to me in mp3 format!
Requiem by Bri Newton
Grief by Bri Newton
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