Ronald Lewis: Vermont Calendar Curator

Serving Vermont poets since 2007!

Open Mic

You will notice that my poems lie open
like pairs of red handled scissors
asking you to pick each one up
and slice open their hard stillness

or see if they tear as easily as tissue

or if marbles come spilling out
of their tiny velvet cloth bags.

You are welcome to shine a light at them
to see if their words phosphoresce

or if they stand frozen in their tracks, like deer.

Hand them guns to see if they serve and protect
or with a single poem loaded into a chamber
play Russian Roulette
pressing the barrel into your mouth,
wondering if the poem will pass through your flesh
or bury itself in your subconscious.

I should ask you to run them over with your cars
to see if you feel a thud

or hand them a tin cup with yellow pencils
to see if they beg answers

wait to see if they build nests
and lay perfect pale blue eggs

like the blue blade of an oar
that softly penetrates the smooth skin
of the open sea into which I placed them
to see if they would somehow
return to their birthwater
like salmon.

Visit the Vermont Poetry Calendar

In addition to the Vermont Poetry Calendar, Ron also maintains a monthly newsletter on the local poetry scene called the Vermont Poetry Newsletter (“VPN”) on this blog. The mission of the newsletter, in Ron’s words, is: to foster the poetry arts community in the Green Mountain State; to serve as a resource for and about VT poets; to support the development of individual poets; and to encourage an audience for poetry in Vermont.

Ron Lewis is an accountant by trade, but is a man of many interests outside the workplace.  A list of only some of his interests and associations: Green Mountain Fly Tyers Club (Founder), Green Mountain Table Tennis Club (Founder, President), New England Panther Research Alliance (Founder, Director), Green Mountain Alliance of Amateur Astronomers (Founder), for which he published the Starry Messenger astronomy newsletter, WeGotNet.org (Designer and Webmaster of the largest web site for girls and women’s basketball – currently offline), and the Mountain Valley AAU (Founder).  He is a member of The Vermont Astronomical Society, The Hildene Astronomy Club, Sovera (Southern VT Astronomy Club), New Haven River Anglers Association, National Valentine Collectors Association, Vermont Watercolor Society, Otter Creek Poetry Workshop and the Poetry Society of Vermont (Secretary).  He is an internationally renowned (realistic) fly tyer, was a fly fishing guide for 17 years, and lists gardening as a top “love” interest of his (the best perennial gardens in his hometown), as well as watercoloring.  He owns probably the largest collection of antique Valentine cards on the east coast, and maintains several exhibits of those during January and February each year.  His interest in poetry dates back to his college days at San Francisco State, where he was under the tutelage of Stan Rice, Denise Levertov and Kay Boyle; one of his classmates was current California Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes.  He is the publisher of the Vermont Poetry Newsletter (VPN), which is followed by over 350 serious poets in Vermont through the poetry blog PoemShape.  He is also the Curator of the Vermont web calendar Poetz.com, which lists all the poetry events in the state, as does the VPN.  He grew up in northern California, is a Mayflower descendant, and currently resides in Brandon, Vermont, where he has lived with his wife Sally Short for the past 30 years. He is currently working on a new enterprise, PoetsWithoutBorders.com, to be an association of poets who want to make a difference in the world through poetry. Ron is currently employed part-time as a substitute teacher and substitute paraeducator in the local school system, something he thoroughly enjoys.  He has one child, a daughter, Elizabeth Lewis, who graduated from Bates College in Maine, and is now enrolled in Duke University’s School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program.