Poetry Night @ Toast Sept. 24

In the waning days of Summer, poetry can ease the painful transition from the lush life to the inevitable cold winter of our discontent.

Hopefully this was the case at the Toast Lounge, where The Somerville News presents its Friday Nights series. The poets at the Sept. 24 were Robert K. Johnson and Elizabeth Lund, who read from their impressive body of work.

Johnson is a retired professor from Suffolk University in Boston and has several poetry collection to his credit, as well as two critically-aclaimed studies of Francis Ford Coppola and Neil Simon.

“I love reading in Somerville. There is an attentive and hip audience that is responsive and seems to know something about poetry,” Johnson said.

Johnson is known for the subtlety and simplicity in his work. He defines himself as a poet who focuses on the subject matter not just fancy phrasing.

“Poetry can’t be chopped up into prose. Phrasing must enhance quotidian reality, as they say at Harvard,” he said.

Elizabeth Lund, is an editor and columnist with the Christian Science Monitor editor, columnist and on-line editor for the paper’s poetry blog “Of Poems and Poetry.”

Lund said she defines herself as an Imagist poet. “My poetry is highly visual; there is a lot of emotion involved.”

Although Lund has not spent much time in Somerville, she said she was pleased with the Toast’s vibe and the receptive audience.

Johnson read his poetry in his signature avuncular style. He sounded much like a poetic version of the wizened narrator of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”

He skillfully recited poems that dealt with lost love, his late father; or the scenes he encountered on his walks through Boston.

Johnson’s poems are well-observed, with rich imagery and phrasing. Here, Johnson describes the lilting voice of a girl he was enamored with when he was a young man: “…tossing words like tiny flower petals into the sunlight.”

In all his poetry Johnson displays a reverence for the past, a love for the urban milieu and a quirky sense of humor.

Lund’s poetry focused on the up and downside of dating and relationships Lund read some very affecting poetry about her relationship with her sister, and effectively used nature as a springboard to illuminate larger truths about life and love.

As any poet can tell you, a poet has to take chances, risk being vulnerable, and give the reader a piece of themselves. Lund did this with lines that ached with real human need.

The next poetry reading will be Oct.15 at Union Square’s Toast Lounge, the doors open at 7 p.m. and the readings start at 8 p.m. After the headliners, Timothy Gager and Maria McCarthy, there will be an open mike for all comers—maybe you?