Welcome all. Hedgewitch (Joy Ann Jones) here, to host another weekly session of poetic jubliance and summer madness here at the pub. I say summer madness, because it seems awfully early for it to be this summery, yet the feeling is just in the air, at least in my part of the U.S. where Spring came almost a month early this year. I don’t consider it Summer till the roses bloom, but they’ve been in full flower for several weeks, and in fact are almost finished, when usually they are just beginning by Mother’s Day.

So I say ‘Happy Summer’ to all, even if in your area it’s not quite there yet, or even if it’s a different season, because Summer is a state of mind, a time for freedom from care and enjoying life. It’s also a time for sharing quality time with friends and family, and we’re in the perfect spot to begin all that here at the pub, where this community is a friend and family to poets of every stripe.

Tuesday’s Open Link Night, where any poet can link any poem on any subject,  is our most popular feature, but as many of you know, it’s not the only specialty item this place turns out. We are open seven days a week, and try to keep the menu tasty every day. We’ve recently had the great good fortune to add some new and talented staff members to give us even more dimension in the area of our other prompts and features, so I thought I’d give them all a shout out, and run the schedule down for new patrons.

On Mondays, the erudite and articulate Chris Galford brings us a look at a different classic poet and poem every week, some familiar, some obscure, from many languages and cultures, in a feature called Pretzels and Bullfights. This is some fun reading, from which I always learn something, and you don’t even have to write a poem, just read some of the best out there.

On Thursdays, we alternate two themed link-in spotlights on the craft of poetry. One is called Form For All, and focuses on the various poetic forms through which we can express ourselves as writers. Samuel Peralta joins Gay Cannon for this feature. Even if you’re strictly a free verse writer, you can usually find something new and interesting to appreciate and learn at these sessions. The other Thursday attraction is called Meeting the Bar, and is all about the nuts and bolts of writing, of challenging ourselves to improve in various ways through experiment and sharing among peers. Charles Miller(the Chazinator) has joined Victoria Ceretto-Slotto to cover those bases in a creative, innovative and interesting way. Both of these platforms include specific prompts which challenge us to write.

Saturdays at the pub starts the weekend off with Poetics, where an alternating team presents various challenges ranging from a word or a concept to specific art or photography to get the creative juices flowing. The two geniuses behind this joint, Brian Miller and Claudia Schoenfeld, have been joined by some new geniuses, Stu McPherson and Karin Gustafson, to come up with a wide range of subjects and starting points to write from that are open-ended but always combine enjoyment  with depth.

To give everyone an opportunity to participate regardless of time zone and country, all these features go live at the same time, 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, and last till midnight of the following day. We hope you’ll investigate and dive in to what suits you if you’ve yet to do so, and enjoy the huge level of support and encouragement that is a hallmark of our participating poets, writers, and team members.

I’ll leave everyone with this very seasonal, short-sleeved summer shirt of a  poem from Carl Sandburg :

Back Yard
by Carl Sandburg

Shine on, O moon of summer.
Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak,
All silver under your rain to-night.

An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an accordion.
A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next month;
to-night they are throwing you kisses.

An old man next door is dreaming over a sheen that sits in a
cherry tree in his back yard.

The clocks say I must go—I stay here sitting on the back porch drinking
white thoughts you rain down.

Shine on, O moon,
Shake out more and more silver changes.

~From The Chicago Poems (Henry Holt and Company, 1916) by Carl Sandburg.

Once again, a happy Summer to all, and I look forward to all the poetic barbeque and pool parties we can handle here at the pub till Fall rings the season out.

Now lets get down to the poetry. If you are new to the pub, here’s the way our link-in works:

Post a poem to your blog,

• Link in the poem you’d like to share (1 per blog, please) by clicking on the Mr.Linky button just below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog url and entered your name, simply click submit.
• Don’t forget to let your readers know where you’re linking up and encourage them to participate by including a link to dVerse in your blog post.
• Visit as many other poems as you like, commenting  as you see fit.
• Spread the word. Feel free to tweet and share on the social media of your choice.
• Finally, enjoy! Remember, we are here for each other. Engage your fellow poets, talk, chat, comment, let them know their work is being read, and enjoy the input you also will receive. This is all about community.