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Reposted by Poetry in Parks

Peter Griffin @zigzackly.bsky.social · 20d

The city’s longest-running open mic. Free for both audience and performers.

I’m hosting tomorrow.

Registration starts on the spot at around 6:45: show up and put your name on the board. The first 20 people are guaranteed a slot.

Event starts 7:00 p.m. . Come! Bring friends. Tell others.

#BomSky

Caferati @caferati.bsky.social · Nov 18

Since 2008, we have been hosting an open mic at Prithvi Theatre Café.
We welcome poets, storytellers, singer-songwriters, comedians.
Fourth Monday of every month, 7 p.m.
#Bombay #Bambai #Mumbai

Caferati @ Prithvi. The city’s longest-running open mic.
Bring your poetry, fiction, narrative non-fiction, lyrics, comedy. You get two minutes at the microphone, and if the crowd likes you, a Suleimani Chai.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · 21d

No rain, despite dark clouds hovering, and it stayed humid.

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · 21d

Eight people stand in a row facing the camera. They stand on a paved surface, and low walls run on either side of them. To the right, part of a roof peeps into the frame. Behind are trees and bushes, and above, a grey monsoon sky.

On a wall which is also a backrest for a low stone-clad bench, four people sit on the bench, one kneels in front, and three perch on the wall. Trees rise behind them, and above, grey clouds fill the sky.

Maggie Millner: “Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing?”

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · 23d

Our 23nd meet is in a Nerul park on 20th September, at 5:00 p.m.

To get the map location, calendar invitation, and suggested theme, please write to us at poetry.in.parks.nm @ gmail

Be there or be... well, warm and dry inside because it may rain ☔ (but don't worry it's a nice park with a shelter)

The Poetry in Parks logotype, a purple circle within which are the words ‘Poetry in Parks’ in pink letters in the Aclonica typeface, appears towards the top and right. Towards the bottom and left is another purple circle, smaller, and within it, in pink letters, is the info for the meet: 5:00 p.m., 20th September, Nerul. The background of the frame is the same pink as the lettering.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

L @galatfemme.bsky.social · Sep 11

"I can't stop thinking about time, and generations, and how enormous our lives are and how tiny. I can't stop wondering if this is endemic to being in one's thirties, with enough behind us and enough before us that we start -- perhaps for the first time -- really feeling urgency replace impatience."

Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · Sep 11

While it’s still September 10 & Mary Oliver’s birthday—she would have been 90—I thought I’d share this thing I wrote on the day she died, in January of 2019

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

A reckoning with Mary Oliver’s reputation as an unserious poet explores how her best work has been misunderstood.

yalereview.org

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

The university gave me a new, elegant
classroom to teach in. Only one thing,
they said. You can't bring your dog.
It's in my contract, I said. (I had
made sure of that.)

The Poetry Teacher, Mary Oliver.
Read by L.

The Poetry Teacher, by Mary Oliver

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

Soon
I could fight like a boy
I could shoot a gun,
I could get lost
and find my way home.
I could not name the things
I was afraid of
like my own body,
cranky and mysterious
as water.

The Son, Mary Oliver.
Read by Saundarya Jain.

The Son, by Mary Oliver

When Death Comes, by Mary Oliver

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When Death Comes, Mary Oliver.
Read by @ideasmithy.bsky.social.

A Pretty Song, by Mary Oliver

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

And I say to my body: grow thinner still.
And I say to my fingers, type me a pretty song.
And I say to my heart: rave on.

A Pretty Song, Mary Oliver.
Read by Nandan Krishnaswamy.

Mysteries, Yes, by Mary Oliver

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Mysteries, Yes, Mary Oliver.
Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social.

How I Go Into the Woods, by Mary Oliver

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.

How I Go Into the Woods, Mary Oliver.
Read by Kartik Sharma.

I Worried, by Mary Oliver

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

I Worried, by Mary Oliver
Read by Kartik Sharma.

www.youtube.com

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Sep 11

It would have been Mary Oliver’s 90th birthday yesterday. Here are a few readings of her work from our archives.

A portrait of Mary Oliver from the Facebook page in her name maintained by her publisher.
She is seen here as an older person. Smiling at camera, dressed in black, and holding a large seashell in one hand.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 25

Oops.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 25

A gazebo. Three people stand on the grass outside it, with a tripod in front of them. They are looking at the sky. In the gazebo, another person is looking at a phone. A walking path behind them is lined with trees.

A person holds a phone and is taking a picture of a book in their other outstretched hand. Two other people stand behind them, pointing at the screen.

A person stands in front of a gazebo, reading from a phone. Four other people stand facing the reader, listening. In front of them, a tripod. Behind, a walking path and trees.

On a wide stretch of grass, two people stand. The one at far left is reading from a phone. The one on the right is adjusting a phone mounted on a tripod. There is a gazebo in the near distance, a pathway curves around it, and trees line the pathway. A grey monsoon sky behind the trees.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 25

A person reading from a phone screen. Behind, a stretch of green grass, a pathway, and a row of trees beyond that.

A person reads from a phone screen. Behind, a person inside a gazebo, leaning against its cement railing, listens.

A close-up of a hand holding a phone at an angle suggesting that the person is reading from it. Behind, grass and a line of trees.

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 25

Two people sit on a cement bench that curves around a gazebo. One is reading from a phone screen while the other is adjusting a phone mounted on a tripod. Behind them, a stretch of green grass and trees in the far distance.

Close-up of a person looking towards the left, leaning against a pillar. Behind, green grass and trees.

Close-up of a person looking to the left. Behind, green grass and trees.

Close-up of a person reading from a phone screen. Behind, green grass and trees.

Poem For A Poet, by Eunice De Souza

Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 25

Some pictures from our meet at Koparkhairane on the 23rd

A road, wet from the rain, leading to an almost-closed metal gate. There are many signboards festooning the gate. Trees rise on either side of the road.

A wide lawn, with a cemented pathway cutting across it. Young palm trees borde the grass. A park bench in the near distance, a gazebo a little further away. Trees in the far distance and monsoon skies above.

A gazebo at centre of frame. It sits in a lawn of close-cropped grass. A cemented path curves around it, with a line of trees behind the path. Silver and grey clouds fill the sky.

A closer view of the gazebo. Two people sit on the floor, chatting.

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 17

Poetry in Parks is volunteer-run and zero-budget.
Your likes, comments, re-shares and follows, your forwarding our posts, are the only ways we get more visibility.
We also post to our Instagram and Facebook (links in bio), so if you are on those platforms, please amplify us there as well? Thank you!

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 17

Our quest for poems and parks we haven’t discovered yet continues.

Our 22nd meet is in a Koparkhairane park on 23 August, at 4:00 p.m.

To get the map location, calendar invitation, and suggested theme, please write to us at poetry.in.parks.nm @ gmail

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 6

Ritu loves music and
has made a hobby of psychology.
Undergraduate, and better still,
uninitiated.
Write her a poem about woman flesh
Watch her become oh so womanly and grateful.

From
Poem For A Poet
By Eunice De Souza

Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social
youtu.be/oG5-1ZddQyY

Advice to Women, and Don't Look for My Life in These Poems, by Eunice de Souza

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Poetry in Parks @poetryinparks.bsky.social · Aug 6

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.

From
Advice to Women
by Eunice de Souza.

==

Poems have order, sanity
aesthetic distance from debris.

From
Don't Look for My Life in These Poems
By Eunice de Souza

==

Both read by Amrita Gupta

youtu.be/FgrJGZ1OjFI