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, October 26, 2025. Poetry in the Boro regular Brian Seadorf will be debuting his new book, FIVE BAPTISMS. Read more about Dorf below.
The feature 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, chips, baked goods, and artisan sandwiches from their grilled cheese station.
About the open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 poems or four minutes, whichever comes first . Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site. Sign ups begin when doors open at 5:30. No early admittance.
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
Brian Seadorf is a guybrarian, reader, searcher, former youth league right fielder and a rock-n-roller in his dreams. He is married to a genius woman, with two nerdy kids and four cats. Five Baptisms is his first book of poetry. Dorf has been attending PITB since 2023.
Challenge words
If you like, write a new piece to share that includes one, some, or ALL of these words, selected by our audience at our last gathering:
deluge | milieu | phoenix | salut(e) | tears | tearing * | beginning | metanoia | lilac
Notes: Oops! Didn’t realize we had heteronyms on the list! What the audience chose was tears, rhymes with ears, the result of crying; and tearing rhymes with caring, to separate or pull apart. You’re always welcome to use other forms of a word. And this time there is also a secret word that you can add, if you were present or can find out from someone who was there!
We rely on your donations
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.
More local lit events and news
- October 12 – Writers Mingle at Dapper Owl (see this Google form for more info)
- Save the dates for our November events:
- Friday, 11/7, reading and open mic in conjunction with the MTSU Write fall conference on Saturday, 11/8. More info soon!
- Friday, 11/14 Soup and Sonnets at Blackman High School
Also check out the monthly Rutherford Arts Alliance lit-news blog by our team member Taffeta Chime!