Wordsoup is a monthly Open Mic Poetry night hosted by Joe Blogs the Poet at Whanganui’s most hipster joint – Porridge Watson. Last Thursday of the month 7-9pm.
And this is the invitation…
We gather, as humans ever have
In a hall warm of beer and fire
The public house, a home for
Our collective desire
The end of day, cosy in cups
Drowning social woes
Cheeks flush rose
Lubricating the cogs of connection
Community collection
In song, dance, story
In murmured conversation
And in the animal magnetism
That draws bodies
To press close like curtains
Keeping out the draught of what is certain
Mortality.
We are all here in this form
For such a short sojour,
Too short not to let yourself alive
Not to leap occasionally
Not to step up and show your real you,
Full bloom
Not to let your spirit rise
Above the small town guise
Or allow the haunting beauty
In another persons eyes.
You are not poppies
You’re humans born free
Not leashed or lashed
By savage slavery.
And so, here we go,
Another Wordsoup to brew
There is a unique worldview
Hidden in every one of you
A perspective perplexive,
Wisdom unexpected
And all you have to do
Is feel those butterflies and follow them
Flutter up onto this stage
And isn’t it amazing that being raised
Just one foot and watched
Can drive such a stampede
Through our botched together minds
Indeed! I invite you to feel it yourself
Do something that scares you,
I’ve heard it’s good for your health.
Let me tell you a secret
Lean close now, listen well
This life is a playground!
So release your inner child
To get messy and hurt,
To learn and run wild
Now!
Throw yourself into this night
We are stewing
Throw some kai into this soup
We are brewing
Be embodied in the doing
And breathe
And your flax to our weave
Feel cradled
In this kete of co-creation
Where creativity and full self-expression
Are the waters we are floating on
From the mountains to the sea
For we are this river
And this river is we.
Joe Blogs, Oct 2023