So I attended an open mic for the first time in a long time. I’d forgotten how invigorating it is to be surrounded by folks who share a passion for words. A lot of awesome, important things were said tonight. The topics ranged far and wide, from silly to serious, from football to Ferguson. Just being in the presence of such raw feeling… it’s impossible to not feel alive and electrified.
The open mic started with what we call the Five Word Challenge. The host solicits five random words from the audience, and then we’re given fifteen-ish minutes to come up with a piece that incorporates those five words. The winner is determined by the very scientific Applause-O-Meter, and the recipient of the most applause wins an on-the-house drink from the coffee house that generously hosts the event (shout out to Second Wind Coffee House) and the knowledge that they won poetry forever.
Tonight, the words were as follows: veneer, celestial, cheesecake, wallaby, and moon bounce (never mind that that last one is two words). At past open mics, I’ve ground my brain-cogs over each word in turn, focusing on the words in the order they were spoken aloud.
Tonight, though, I decided to free-associate, and, miraculously, actually came up with something coherent. Here it is:
Too often, I have to remind myself
That I am a celestial being
Composed of light and stardust
That everything in the universe and me
Is me
All the same stuff
If you peel back the thin veneer
Of social anxieties and cheap makeup
You’ll find a person unperturbed by
The thought of her changing form
Her mind and body that will be
Sanded down by time
Her mind slowing from wallaby hops
To slow beetle crawls
Her edges softening
And sharpening again
I remind myself the thing about the stars again
And my moon bounce belly quivers
Because my guts
Are star guts
So, in the grand scheme of it all
In this vast, unfolding universe
What’s one more slice of cheesecake?
I ended up winning this here Five Word Challenge and got myself my favorite drink at Second Wind. The hot version is called a Dante’s Inferno (it has seven ingredients, one of which is cayenne pepper), but it was a warm night, so I got it chilled and blended (a Hell Frozen Over).
The victory drink.
Also, at every open mic, we have a featured poet recite some of their material. Tonight, the guest of honor was Candace Liger, whom I can only describe as a badass. She opened with the disclaimer that she isn’t much for love poems, and then proceeded to deliver one of the most heartfelt, luscious, moving love poems I’ve heard. She then moved to a rousing number about Ferguson and closed with a tearful piece about her father, who instilled in her a love of poetry.
After it was done, I hugged her and told her I wished I could spit words like she could. I’m comfortable with crafting sentences and presenting them to a reader I can’t see, but when I step behind a mic, my voice wavers and my hands visibly shake. She shook her head and said that years ago, she opened her cabinet and drank the last expired cans of Give-A-Fuck she found there and that’s how she got to where she is today.
Words to live by.
-Alyssa
alyssagrimley 