Join us to listen to some poetry—or share some writing of your own—at Poetry in the Boro at Dapper Owl on Sunday evening, January 26, 2025. Our feature will be one of our regulars at the open mic, Charles Thomas, reading from his new book Love Too Much. Read more about Charles below.
The features will be at 6:00, with open mic to follow. Drip coffee and light nibbles will be available at no charge. However, we hope that you’ll order from Dapper Owl’s tasty menu to help make this a winning collaboration for all of us! Their menu includes coffee, tea, beer, cider, and baked goods. Watch this space to preorder hot food that evening – we’ll share a link one week ahead of time.
About the open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 poems or four minutes, whichever comes first. (Please be aware that if we have a lot of sign-ups, we may ask that you read only 1 poem.) Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site.
We always ask that readers be prepared to keep their pieces “PG-13” depending on our venue and audience, which sometimes includes younger people.
The Dapper Owl coffee pub is located at 2412 East Main St. just past its intersection with Rutherford Blvd., on the east side of the MTSU campus. Overflow parking is on the Arnold Lane side of the building – pull in perpendicular to the building to allow more cars to fit (careful of the AC unit!) or park on the side of road down Arnold Lane (please don’t block any driveways).
About our feature
Charles Thomas (he/his) likes to remember that half of himself is half of his mom. He writes for the joy of expressing thoughts and feelings. He does not have a degree in literature nor an MFA in poetry, yet he admires those who do have such degrees. Twenty-five of his poems and pieces have been accepted for publication by various print and online magazines, but many more have been declined! His decision to self-publish a collection now is based on wanting to get something into print that might contribute, in some small way, toward the goal of creating Beloved Community.
Challenge words
Here are our challenge words, chosen by our community at our last gathering. If you like, write a new piece to share that includes one, some, or ALL of these words:
limerence | accelerate | verdant | burnt | vault | release | linear | encumbered | benevolence | illuminate
Your donations are appreciated
ADMISSION IS FREE. A DONATION of $5 is appreciated to help us offset our costs. You can donate using PayPal at paypal.me/poetryintheboro. We also accept donations on site.
Poetry in the Boro thanks MTSU Write and the Rutherford Arts Alliance for their on-going partnerships and support.
For more local lit news
Check out the monthly Rutherford Arts Alliance lit-news blog by our team member Taffeta Chime!