burning of ''the pain words'' from frank wolfe's memorial open mic's 10th anniversary in 2024.

thank you to everyone who made it to the 10th anniversary of our annual memorial open mic for frank wolfe! and thank you to those who couldn't make it but wished us well by email.

below is the video i made of ''the pain words'' ripped up during the event and then burned by me. i was traveling right after the event and am finally catching up at existence and its to-do-lists now, so i am very happy to get this on the interwebs now:

 

remember to release what doesn't make sense to stay inside, when you can. even if you can only make a small dent in whatever it is, our bodies appreciate when you give them a break and a bit of the respect they deserve around all the hard things there are to sift through in life around what's beautiful, complex, and more.

 

thank you for loving, learning from, and remembering frank with us. <3

2024: the 10th annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe.

hello, everyone! 2024 is the year of the 10th annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe at steel city coffeehouse & brewery in phoenixville, chester county.

we hope that if you haven't been able to attend in the past or in recent years that you might be able to this year. and please welcome new folks, too, if you think they'd like to attend and would appreciate what we do at this event annually in promoting honesty, creativity, art, humor-laced living, understanding, and what it is to be decent and respectful to each other in a complex modern world.

emily neblock and i (jen hetrick) will be co-hosting and can't wait to see anyone who can attend. thank you for your continued support as well as that of steel city coffeehouse & brewery. <3

any questions in advance can be sent to poetrywithjenniferhetrick at yahoo dot com.

2023: the ninth annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe.

emily neblock will be hosting again, this year, complete gem that she is!

any questions in advance can be sent to poetrywithjenniferhetrick at yahoo dot com.

2022: the eighth annual memorial open mic for frank kelso wolfe.

 emily neblock will be hosting, this year.

any questions in advance can be sent to poetrywithjenniferhetrick at yahoo dot com.

 

// 

 

as an update, joe glinkosky reached out to share these paintings, below, by frank. enjoy!

 

 

2021: letter-ish words by emily neblock.

 

(Submitted on October 8, 2021; sunflower photo by Emily Neblock)

 

Dear All,

While pondering what to say for this 7th anniversary of Frank Wolfe's passing, it occurred to me that Frank represents very well what I value most in this world: Realness. He was who he was and did not try to be anything else. The world we live in is sorely without such quality, and yet it is that quality that matters the most of all...at least if we want to live in more of a utopia than a dystopia. This world is currently afflicted with the greatest division, depression, ire, uncertainty of future. People need people, people of a quality that used to be more common. People need reassurance and trust, but instead what surrounds us is so often fake or suspicious, untrustworthy, empty of morals, or upsetting without any promise of true communication or resolution. The world is in a bit of a sorry place in many ways. We desperately need Frankness. We need art and honesty; we need cultural commentary from peaceful hearts. We need comedy and levity. We need inspiration and humble-spirited endurance. We need authentic people. Where are all the Franks? If Frank were here, he would be coming up with jokes about the ridiculousness, trying to live his heart's dreams, and thinking compassionately about every person alive, what their realities are and why they do what they do. In a world of division and confusion, these are the only things that will show us the true path forward, and ground each of us to the floor of our true human reality...or help our feet find it again if it has been a long time since we knew its safety.

 

Emily Neblock is a musician and so much more that it hardly fits into words. We love her a whole darn lot!

2021! october 7 & 7 years in missing frank kelso wolfe.

today is 7 years since we lost frank kelso wolfe of royersford borough, montgomery county, pennsylvania, to suicide on october 7, 2014. we miss him so incredibly much, even more in recent months. 2020 and 2021 have been brimming with lessons we feel frank would want us to be easy on ourselves in sifting through, but it often takes conscious effort for that, and we're not always in the most aligned of head-space or heart-space to remember this. life nowadays feels like the most complex it's been for many of us in a while, and it's been doing a whirlwind on our mental health, our bodies, and our bones.

please check back soon for more updates, as we cannot keep up with the world anymore (we still have submissions to post from 2020!), but we will be welcoming ongoing submissions here, with the same process as last year. please feel free to submit even before we can update further here. we welcome your words, your art, your music, your heart on a digital page.

there will be no direct date or physical open mic, the same as last year (we miss steel city coffeehouse & brewery! please support this local business); this is a more creative form of our usual annual event and will be ongoing so that art and words can keep pushing forward with no deadline.

see 2020 submissions info here until 2021 info is updated, but again, it will be the same process, so hopefully that's helpful for everyone, in how it's difficult to for us to keep up, but we're doing our best, like so many of us are right now in our exhausted existences. expect more edits ahead in this post for the 2021 memorial open mic in blog-form nowadays for frank. and thank you for taking the time to visit, to read these tossings of language in the seventh annual memorial open mic, now in blog-form for the second year, since last year kinda basically threw everyday life upside-down.

 

 

<3 

 jen & emily

2020: reflections, bird haiku, another poem, & recipes by maryann neblock.

 

MaryAnn Neblock shares reflectively here—

I feel older in the age of COVID and Trump than my chronological years. I love my husband of 44 years and my 2 adult children. My husband has been my caregiver and strength and helps me through my complicated life and extensive medical history. My family is my lifeline, my foundation. Crohn’s Disease has ravaged most of my adult life, but I try very hard not to measure everything else against it. I’m new to writing poetry and haiku, and it’s offered me some catharsis. My poem "Un•Whole•Y•Ness" was written in a Prednisone-induced bout of insomnia after my Dad passed away in 2017. Bird haiku came about from enjoying seeing birds outside of my house, where we feed them and offer a birdbath to drink and splash around. Cooking is my passion and refuge, and I’ve been preparing food for family since I was 9 years old. Recently, I’ve been photographing my creations and formatting original recipes to share with friends, family, and the recipe index on Kimberton Whole Foods' website. Last year, my husband and I were able to share our love of music and sang at Frank’s 2019 celebration of life at Steel City Coffeehouse. I hope we can honor him again that way in 2021.

The current environment in our country would have been very difficult for a tortured soul; it’s exceedingly difficult for most of us. Rest in peace, Frank. We honor you and your life on this day and beyond.

 

*

 

In 2019, Berks Bards celebrated 21 years as a local poetry-promoting nonprofit in Berks County. MaryAnn served as the featured poet as a bird haiku writer during the celebratory get-together during April as National Poetry Month at Brandywine Branch Distillery & Bistro, in Chester County, not far from the border of Berks County. This video showcases MaryAnn's bird poems she read for the event.

Below is one of her bird haiku samplings, from the video.

 

CROW

Shiny black feathers
You “caw” to me while in flight
Heaven’s wings aloft 

  

*

 

In 2017, MaryAnn wrote a poem about her experience with Crohn's Disease and its impacts on her body in daily life. It is the poem below, which was later published in a newsletter through The Oley Foundation based in Delmar, New York.

Un•Whole•Y•Ness

I lie awake in bed at night
Hoping to fall asleep
To dream..to be whole
The soft whir of the pump
ka-chunk     ka-chunk
Moving liquid nutrients into my heart
And eventually into what’s left of my gut

How did I become this creature?
This artificial being in body
While still real and whole in mind and soul

How can the body fail so as to betray
the spirit that drives me?
And how do I go on from here
To fulfill my purpose with such distraction?

Tomorrow is another day
To push through the daily rituals
Until the whir of the pump once again
Lulls me to sleep..and I become whole

 

*

 

And here are some of MaryAnn’s delicious-as-a-curse-word recipes published through Kimberton Whole Foods—

Unstuffed Peppers
Vietnamese Soup AKA canh chua or cá nấu
Navy Bean Soup 

Ricotta Frittata
Lamb Meatballs with Yogurt Mint Sauce
Southwestern Style Lentil Vegetable Soup