HART Rock Poetry Series returns for National Poetry Month

HART Rock Poetry Series made a comeback at Patricia’s Wellness Arts Café and Quilter’s Comfort Teas on Friday.

Despite the harsh weather, a small group gathered to hear poems and stories.
Kicking off the evening, Bloomington local Andrew Bowen read a personal poem titled “The Haunted Mill.”

“I got the idea for it at a festival in Sandborn,” Bowen said. “It was based off of an Appalachian folk tale that I heard at the festival, but I adapted it to Bloomington.”

Peggy Squires, co-host with Patricia’s Wellness Arts Café owner Patricia Coleman, said she “always relished a new treatment of a folkloric theme.”

Coleman continued with a story about an Indian brave and a short poem. She has coordinated the Poetry Series for many years and said she is excited it’s back.

“I began hosting the Series at the Runcible Spoon many years ago,” Coleman said. “The Series had been going on for a long time, but once ownership of the Spoon changed hands, the Series quit being hosted.

Matt O’Neal, the new owner of the Spoon, asked me to host it again, though, so I hosted there for about five more years.”

Continuing the tale of the traveling Series, Coleman said they had to move to Rachael’s Café two years ago due to the Spoon’s increased popularity as a restaurant.

Squires joined Coleman as co-host at the Rachael’s Café, and they were hosts to their last program of the HART Rock Poetry Series in May of this year. Once Coleman opened Patricia’s Wellness Arts Café, she said, she “could hardly wait to start the Series up again.”

“When I signed the lease for this place, I knew that I wanted to start the Series here,” Coleman said. “Tonight is the first time it has been hosted here, and I am very happy to be doing it again.”

Coleman and Squires plan to have the Series the fourth Friday of every month, and as April is National Poetry Month, they have planned a special workshop at Patricia’s Wellness Arts Café.

“Next month, we will host a chapbook intensive facilitated by HART Rock,” Coleman said. “It is our first book-related workshop for people interested in putting their small collections, such as recipes, short stories and poems, together in one book.”

Finishing up the first Series, Squires told a short, cultural story she picked up in her travels. Then, with Coleman, she ushered attendees to a table that had been prepared with fresh tea and cake.

“We’re so excited to be starting the Series again, and I’m really looking forward to the workshop next month,” Coleman said. “I’m hoping that it will be helpful and informative to everyone that comes.”

Pausing and laughing, Coleman made a final reference to the temperamental weather.
“Hopefully the tornados will stay away next time,” she said.