Finding a place to be

Without a fire there is no warmth; without bread we are consumed by hunger. A tentative joy is ours to carry when the fire burns in the hearth and the smell of freshly baked bread wafts from the windows of the kitchen. We weave our way back through the forest of questions and doubts to find our place again among those we count as friends.

We carry with us, on the twists and turns of the pathway, the security of the place we called home, where we have known both warmth and sustenance. We have been engulfed by the welcome afforded us there and have found strength and courage to stand strong, to walk through open doors and take our place where we belong.

This month we continue with our intimate open mic sessions at the MAD Cafe in Collingwood – Moonshine on the Microphone.  And we resume  the edgy Acid on the Microphone at the Mussel Inn.

Now that we have two open mic sessions each month, it would be excellent to see you out and about. Nothing like gathering together to build strength and resilience into our voices and into our being!

Details on the following pages.

Peace
Mark Raffills

Places of the heart

The old couch held us in comfort there
We laughed with ease
Food aplenty there was to share
And no one was kept away
Here was shelter from the storm
Friendship here to keep us warm
We ventured out to make our way
Every season was being born

On a cold autumn evening
We gathered to the fire
We sat each one on the wooden pews
And spoke in silence for a while
Just content to be here
Nothing needed to be said
We had known the cut of the chilling wind
And hunger through lack of bread.

Mark Raffills

Open Microphone

MOONSHINE on the MICROPHONE

It is happening again this coming Thursday  7 July!
Collingwood’s own voice!
MOONSHINE OF THE MICROPHONE

Poets, story tellers, singers and musicians – you can register on the night. As Bob Dylan said, get on down to the MAD Cafe and ‘let your poor voice be heard’!!

Poems and stories and music plus a whole heap of bonhomie –  The bar and kitchen will be operating as usual so plenty of time for a meal beforehand and drinks throughout the evening.

Hope to  see you there, this Thursday.

Moonshine on the Microphone
MAD Cafe, Collingwood
This Thursday 7 July 2022, 7.30 pm.
$5 on the door

An Undivided Community

FREE UP THE MICROPHONE – on the move

It’s been quiet on the Village Green these last few weeks so thought we would try a relocation for a while.  SOMA Cafe in Takaka have kindly welcomed us to their place for a lunch time session following on from Standing with Signs.  We plan to be set up at Soma from 12.45 pm each Friday. We hope you can come and join us and take part in the open mic sessions with songs, provocations and poems.

The location changes but the message remains almost the same. The big thing is still that masks must be worn in retail outlets. It’s time to stop this foolishness and acknowledge that mask wearing is largely ineffective when it comes to stopping the spread of a virus. And they are the single biggest instrument of division still plaguing our community. They must go.

And although  the ‘mandates’ have gone – or at least put into the back pocket for now –  we want to see it mandated that people who lost their jobs must be offered them back with reinstatement of lost wages.

The vax passports have gone into the back pocket too which means all events can run freely for now and we must make certain it stays this way for evermore.

So you can see, the work is not done yet. And there is nothing like a poem or a song or a few well-chosen words to Free Up the Microphone and strengthen the heart in its bold stand. Planning to be at Soma Cafe, Takaka,  every Friday from 12.45 pm, holding the space for an undivided community.

Free Up The Microphone
Soma Cafe, Takaka
Fridays, 12.45 pm