On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the Words Matter bookstore in Pitman hosted its once-monthly poetry open mic. This open mic featured poets of all ages presenting their own work or the work of others in a casual format open to discussion and reflection.

The poetry presented had a wide range of styles, from free verse to lyrical, introspective, and rhyming, while covering a broad range of topics. 

One poet read a long-form piece inspired by the aftermath of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, while another read her own take on a linguistic device called spoonerism, where the first sound of two words is swapped. 

She explained this phenomenon first by showing a Shel Silverstein book that used the same method, “Runny Babbit.” And then read her poem, “The Gappy Hardener” (the Happy Gardener).

Between poems, owner of Words Matter Bookstore and host Keryl Hausmann spoke, saying “To listen to [poetry] is different than to read it.” 

“Every time one of you gets up and reads I am absolutely swept away,” Hausmann said.

For the first half of the night, 5 people presented poems. There was then a little break in between to snack and discuss with one another the poetry of the evening.

Attendees talked about one another’s poetry, as well as the feel of the night itself. Tuesday, as well, was election night. As such, there was a sort of unspoken rule in the air to avoid discussion of heavy topics. Poetry can err to the side of the political, but this night in particular people seemed intentional in their skirting of the topic. Instead, for many, levity seemed to be a goal.

Poetry then resumed after people signed up for their first or second slot of the evening.

Kaylee Wagner, a freshman at Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) majoring in psychology said she goes to poetry night “every month.” 

“I’ve been coming since last January,” Wagner said.

She started writing poetry two years ago at the beginning of her junior year of high school. At the event, she read her poem titled “November.”

Reya Clark, an audience member and freshman at RCSJ majoring in liberal arts found it nice to hear other students’ poetry. 

“You can see where everybody’s mind is at and like the emotion in different people’s writing. It’s like everybody has their own art form so it’s really nice to hear everybody,” Clark said. “You hear different things you’re not used to, so it opens your mind up to different, like, options.”

Words Matter Bookstore hosts many community events, including seven book clubs and of course, a monthly poetry open mic. The next one will be Tuesday, Dec. 3. This open mic will be themed around food since it will be in the middle of the holiday season.

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