GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe

hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington
all ages and uncensored since 2004

7pm Thursday, July 12, 2012
and every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B
(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
360-993-7777
christopherjluna@gmail.com

http://www.printedmattervancouver.com

http://www.covertocoverbooks.net

Featuring Patrick Bocarde and Melissa Sillitoe:

Patrick Bocarde did, according to legend, come from his mother’s womb in the dreaded Nordic winter of 1969. He saved his family just after birth when instinctively he knew they must live off the warmth of burning Rod McKuen Albums. Patrick graduated from SUNY-Binghamton in 1991, and a year later headed west with a car full junk and a head full of poems which soon he would be unleashing on an unsuspecting audience, Among them the early Cafe Lena crowd.

Since then, Patrick has been a contributor to the culture of Portland poetry, having been a host, a sound engineer (to this day!) for KBOO’s poetry program Talking Earth, and contributor to local writing journals including the Broken Word anthologies, the Temple, and Venetian Blind Drunk, among others. He was, with co-conspirator Neil Anderson, creator of the satirical short film “the worriers” (based on the cult classic the warriors) and his chapbooks include This Economy Must Be Destroyed, Walking Home Weird, and Metalbook (available for $5 at the July 12 event).

 

Nailpyres by Patrick Bocarde

We regret the loss of blood

as a thousand nail fangs pierce

her humphung human flesh;

The Society for the Conservation

of Humans claims we must limit

the spread of Nailpyres, who

needlessly lose blood and waste

human stock by the dozens each night.

They must be forced to wear

safe, workable fangs or we

shall exterminate them with extreme

prejudice. So, frail human

victims of supple neck and breast,

choose your vampires carefully,

and you will be rewarded

with a slow yet pleasurable demise.

Melissa Sillitoe: I moved from Salt Lake City to Portland in 2005, and I love this silver sky and river city and its soft light. As a poet, I use everyday words and their inherent music, juxtaposing these with lyrical and symbolic language. I hope to write poems where every word matters, even if its purpose is to keep the poem’s music or momentum intact. I’ve published in a few places like THE BEAR DELUXE, and I’ve performed at invited readings series, including ones produced by dan raphael and KBOO’s Barbara LaMorticella. In 2007, I created Show and Tell Gallery, a 501c3 non-profit that continues to produce weekly spoken word events, some spontaneous, some rehearsed collaborations. I also co-produce the Verse in Person series at Northwest Library and have helped produce other events, such as Goatfest and a bluegrass music series at Backspace Café.

What Happened by Melissa Sillitoe

It was autumn, my first.

It was Red Butte Garden.

Who cares how I got there,

my sleepwalk, those unlikely

years spent outside seasons,

eyes adjusting to starless nights.

I might have looked down,

as usual, and missed it.

No trick of light

that glowing ember sky,

when one sunbeam

struck.  It stuck.

Now, miles later, I don’t

know why I looked up.

Gold fell from openhanded trees.

One birdnote I couldn’t sing

startled my dreams.

I know just this:

all I had was gone, all I

did not dare hope waited.

No. More. Trees,

Where, everywhere,

vermilion autumn

bled for me, in spite of me.

Note: This poem was recently published in Take Out 8, published and edited by Laura Winter.