{"id":7188,"date":"2018-05-09T09:33:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T13:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7188"},"modified":"2018-05-09T09:53:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T13:53:42","slug":"improbable-places-poetry-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/05\/09\/improbable-places-poetry-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Improbable Places Poetry Tour Brings Poetry To A Bike Shop, A Bank, A Farm, A Swimming Pool And (Tomorrow, Maybe) A Viking Ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea for the Improbable Places Poetry Tour arrived at a time when Colleen Michaels\u2019s daughter was young and they\u2019d walk everywhere, especially along Cabot Street in Beverly, where they live. Michaels was also teaching writing to artists as the Writing Studio director at Montserrat College of Art in the town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to get my bike fixed at Centraal Cycle and I was like wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful if all these worlds could come together,\u201d Michaels recalls. So she talked to the shop folks and arranged to host a poetry reading there on Oct. 28, 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 60 people showed up, which blew me away,\u201d Michaels says. There were people in bike shorts and people, um, dressed like poets. \u201cI just wanted all our groups to come together in poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cImprobable Places\u201d toured have since included a tattoo parlor, a paint store, a used furniture store, a diner, a metal fabrication shop, a chocolate shop, a dress shop, a laundromat as patrons continued to plunk coins into the machines to wash their clothes, and in the center of a roller palace as skaters circled around.<\/p>\n

\"Colleen<\/a>
Colleen Michaels at Centraal Cycle for the first Improbable Places Poetry Tour reading in 2010. (courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mostly the readings have been held around Beverly and Salem. \u201cI had these very familiar places in my town\u2014the bank and the flower shop and the supermarket\u2014already it had this context, but I wondered if there might be a bigger story there,\u201d Michaels says. \u201cI\u2019m trying to find the story of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next \u201cImprobable Places Poetry Tour\u201d reading<\/a> is \u201ca night of nautical poetry about deep water and tall sails\u201d scheduled for tomorrow, May 10, at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex, Massachusetts. It begins with Three Sheets To The Wind singing sea shanties at 6:30 p.m., then the poetry reading at 7 p.m. They\u2019re aiming to hold the reading aboard a replica Viking ship docked there. If weather is foul, they\u2019ll hold the event indoors in the boat workshop. Guests are invited to bring picnics\u2014and, if they\u2019re so inclined, arrive by kayak. \u201cThere will also be a lot of sailors there, which will be,\u201d Michaels says, \u201cnice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sort of neighborhood anthology. It\u2019s almost a weird way to look at commerce in your town, kind of turning it upsidedown,\u201d Michaels says. \u201c\u2026I feel like it makes me fall in love with it, even with all the problems any town can have. Being able to sit together and talk about it makes for a happy experience. \u2026 It just feels like we\u2019re in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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