You’ve read posts here and watched videos too about this local event I go to every month called “Poetry Under the Paintings.” It’s hosted by Faustina’s Gallery in the gorgeous little Victorian town of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where every second Thursday a group of local poetry and art lovers join to celebrate verse read aloud in the presence of beautiful works of art.

Sometimes we are even accompanied by musicians, the legendary Steve Mitchell on bongos, my beautiful Brian Kelly on keyboard, even Dave Miller of the Dave Miller Band has accompanied us on acoustic guitar.

Well, tomorrow night’s gathering has been cancelled due to the uncertain conditions of this nor’easter that is heading our way. Depending on which forecast you prefer we could get anywhere from three inches to a foot of snow!

But perhaps I shouldn’t say it’s cancelled, only restructured. Instead of braving the dangers of Mother Nature’s cold caresses we are going to get our live poetry fix by meeting virtually on our Facebook page! The upside of doing it this way is that you don’t even have to be in Pennsylvania to join us! If you have nothing going on tomorrow, Thursday the 13th of February, please visit us for this online event.

We usually meet at 7:00 PM EST, but if that doesn’t work for you, by all means drop by early or late, and post a poem or three. You’ll of course need to click like on the Facebook page to post something, and by all means comment and like the postings of others there. It’s a social gathering, not a formal event. You’ll have to bring your own coffee though.

If you don’t have Facebook (You may be smarter than most of us.), feel free to drop your post here int he comment section and I’ll add it to the PUP page as soon as I can.

You can post original poems or favorites by poets you like. It can be in text, video or audio form. Think of it as a Thursday free-for-all, poetry, art, whatever gets to your heart. Snow-bound and Valentine themes are entirely optional. We did this in December to work around everyone’s celebratory schedules and it was a lot of fun.

Again, the Poetry Under the Paintings Facebook link is right here.  See you in the virtual gallery!

Below is a sample of what we do when we get together. Everyone takes a turn reading a piece; we all applaud. Actually we all applaud first because it’s easier to perform when you know we already love you. Then the next person hops up and takes the mic. No pressure, no sign-ups, no formalities. Just lots of love for good poetry and art.

Related articles

• Fare Thee Well, Ross Moyer
• Richard Blanco and Poetry Under the Paintings
• David Reads from April’s Poetry Magazine, Part 1