Poet Marissa Michel Reading for Berks Bards & the Return of Our Open Mic via Zoom!

We as Berks Bards are thrilled to share our First Thursday poetry reading from last month on Zoom here via YouTube. In February 2021, we featured Marissa Michel who became the Youth Poet Laureate of Prince George's County in Maryland in 2020.

February of this year also marks us finally bringing our open mic after featured poet readings on First Thursdays back monthly. Until now, we had not hosted our open mics since March 2020, our last in-person poetry reading and open mic at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, where we hosted these events for years. We, like those behind many nonprofits, have had a lot to adjust to since 2020 in how we operate. So we're very grateful to bring back this much-missed aspect with our free events for those of you who join us as our audience.

Below, please enjoy our poetry reading with Marissa Michel and our limited sign-ups open mic!

And if you'd like to see our November 2020, December 2020, and January 2021 poetry readings on Zoom, they are available to check out here.

Be on the the lookout for our March 2021 poetry reading featured poet Katy Giebenhain and the return of our open mic soon, once we have it shared to YouTube.

Join Marissa Michel on Zoom—Thursday, February 4th, 2021, at 6 pm EST.

 

 

Join Marissa Michel on Zoom!


When: Thursday, February 4th, 2021, at 6 pm EST


Where: TinyURL.com/VirtualBard to reach us on Zoom


If required, please enter the Meeting ID 759 062 6042


And below is a sample poem from our featured poet:

 

The Perfection of Language

I sometimes confuse my grandmother's voice
With the ferocity of oceans
With the dignity of lions
With the rumble of race car engines
The way her tongue coils like a snake
Sometimes a copperhead, ready to strike
And unleash creole like rapid fire
Sometimes a boa
Creeping in the shadows
Willing to choke the air out of you just
By being in her presence
Her vocal cords must be made of steel
The way they embrace the thunder when she fills the house with sound
It is only at night
When the wind rustles the trees
When the crickets chirp in the low grass
She is quiet
She tells me she envies the smoothness of my speech
How I never trip over my words
Or get twisted in my sentences
I yearn to tell her how I envy her speech
How I wish her words did not claw and scratch and resist finding a home
behind the bars of my teeth
She mutters english words under her breath
Listens to the American TV until dawn
Carves away the sharpness in her tongue
Chisels the powerful snakes into imperfect flowers and
Labours over the perfection
Of language

 

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RETURN OF OUR POETRY OPEN MIC!

Also, we are thrilled to be bringing back our open mic, after this reading, similar but slightly differently to past in-person readings we hosted for years.

If you would like to participate in our limited open mic following the presentation by our February 2021 featured poet, please send an email to Patti Ross, Berks Bards' current host, at par.media1@gmail.com, no later than Friday, January 29, 2021, with "Berks Bards open mic" in the subject line.