The poetry series meets annually in September, November, February and April. Each month several prominent published poets give readings. An open mic follows with a limit of one short poem per person.

This reading will feature poets Mary Buchinger, Alexander Levering Kern, Jayla Tillison, and Lymyn O'Sing. The series is facilitated by Doug Holder of Ibbetson St. Press.

Mary Buchinger, whose books include The Book of Shores and Virology (Lily Poetry Review Books), and Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, Honors, Massachusetts Book Award), teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and served on the New England Poetry Club board for many years. Her poetry appears in AGNI, Nimrod, Plume, Salamander, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, and she is the 2024 winner of the Elyse Wolf/Slate Roof Chapbook Prize.

Alexander Levering Kern is a poet, chaplain, editor, and Quaker educator originally from Washington, DC and based in Somerville and (whenever possible) Chebeague Island, Maine. He is the author of a book of poems, What an Island Knows (Shanti Arts, 2024), and a forthcoming poetry collection from Cervena Barva Press. Alex is the editor of the anthology Becoming Fire and founding editor of Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts. His work appears widely in publications such as Consequence Online, Spiritus, About Place Journal, Georgetown Review, Spare Change News, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Soul-Lit, and in anthologies from Tiferet, Meridian, Main Street Rag, Pudding House, and Ibbetson Street. Recipient of various writing awards, Alex was selected as a resident at the T.S. Eliot House in 2024. Alex has served and learned alongside communities around issues of justice, peace, and healing in a variety of global contexts: in post-earthquake Haiti, post-apartheid Southern Africa, northern Nigeria, rural Honduras, and with unhoused and displaced people in the United States. His work has been covered by the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Harvard Gazette, Somerville Times, and the Sidwell Friends Alumni Magazine.

Jayla Tillison is a young Black poet from the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her past publications include two poems in the first issue Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts, and two articles for the first issue of Infra-Structures, an independent publication by the students of Northeastern University’s School of Architecture. Her first full length collection, Obligatory Offerings is forthcoming in 2024. Regardless of whether she is writing, you can usually find here listening to music and sipping on hot drinks in cozy cafes.

Lymyn O'Sing (formerly Li Min Mo) was born in China, and has lived and worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts for over 5 decades. She holds an M.A. in Education and Theater from Goddard College, MFA from Emerson College. Lymyn has worked extensively as a storyteller. In 1997, she received a grant for her first poetry collection from the Barbra Deming's "Money for Women" Fund. Her 2009 memoir, Spirit Bridges, has received First Prize in 2020 from Brooker Street. Lymyn is working on her second memoir, Singing Enchantment, its main theme is about singing as a healing balm. Her poetry has been published in Bagel Bard's Anthologies. She has been a member of Streetfeet Women's Company, a writers and performers collective since 1982.