Stone Soup Servings is a regular series for Oddball Magazine that features upcoming performers at Stone Soup Poetry, the long-running spoken word venue in the Boston area that has recently partnered with Oddball Magazine. Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m.

On May 12, Stone S is thrilled to feature all the authors from the new Anthology Wild Women of Lynn: Writings from the Walnut: Street Coffee Cafe. It would be an immense post if we were to publish excerpts from every author. It would also be unfair to those who want to sell the book. That said, we have published non anthologized work from Kerry Zagarella and Elizabeth Gordon McKim if you want an example of the diversity of voices. For now, we leave you with the poetic foreword from the Wild Women’s biggest fan, publisher Blaine Hebbel, who really wants you to be in the audience this Monday to listen and buy a copy of the collection.

 

The American Voice

Whitman & Poem were the first to know the American Voice
Poe spoke in a language defined by the sound
Whitman by the senses he found
continental but essential
in celebration for our awakening nation
Erza Pound, Gertrude Stein & William Carlos Williams
built the craft
Charles Olson, Kenneth Rexroth & Denise Levertov
continued down the path

But for me the American Voice really starts with the Beats
the rumble of the streets, the stretching out of the nation again
the fascination with the city heat a time to breathe again
rejection of the military industrial complex idea of nation
the free flow of modern jazz
the underground integration
of the oneness of all people
racing across this expanse of our land
with wonders at every turn
coast to coast so hot they could burn
& that manic energy flowed to every pore
there were no doors they couldn’t open
the music of the swamp moved up the river
rock & roll followed
The Byrds, Velvet Underground, Dylan, Hendrix & The Doors
electrified their words
with flower power, psychedelics & hippies
it then got pretty trippy
as did I a wide eyed receptor
absorbing everything I could
swirling my version of the American Voice
into some crucible of molten thoughts
but still just an innocent faun was so clear
kept trying to find my ear
continued to rock
until it got bought
but then punk broke
Patti Smith spoke
& I broke down my own doors
fiercely interpreting my mind
Lew Welch went southwest while
I went every direction looking everywhere for everything
searching for a ring of bone until
again life got in the way
my senses dulled
a spectator for too many days
but then I found my voice again
Occupy occupied my time
because The American Voice doesn’t inhabit temples of greed
or to need to have more than your neighbors or friends
but I know corporate greed will never end
still I couldn’t stay idle
sit on my hands
when my voice is strong
so I sought out places to go hear & speak
leading me to the Walnut Street Coffee Café
where the heart throbbed
& I stood open mouthed in awe
at the power of the words
from five incredible, beautiful women.
Wild Women of Lynn
their words are the American Voice
all I needed was to hear them once
to know I could never get enough.