Hot Springs poet Grey featured at WNP tonight
Hot Springs poet Sky Ezra Grey will be the featured poet at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee + Tea, 110 Central Ave.
The regular open mic session for all poets, musicians, and storytellers will begin at 6:30 p.m. today. Grey will begin his feature set at 7:15 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and WNP is open to all ages.
Born in New Hampshire and now living in Hot Springs, Grey has been writing poetry his entire life.
“I was born in New Hampshire and lived there until I was 19, coming down here after I graduated to attend school for a year. I’ve been living in Hot Springs nearly the last two years and have been in Arkansas for about four,” he said in a news release.
“I have an excellent chosen family that is mostly here in town and two little sisters I miss very much. I have my cat, Jupiter, who is about 4 and my son. Currently, I am just writing and working, but I would like to go back to school for a degree and then open a food truck. I enjoy cooking, music, and being outside (likely hunting for mushrooms),” he said.
“As far back as I can remember I have loved writing. It started out with short stories and diarylike entries scattered throughout my piles of notebooks, but around middle school, I found Walt Whitman and Longfellow and fell in love with poetry. It started with countless trips to the library to find collections of every poet I could, and filling notebooks with favorite poems and forms.
“With that being my introduction to poetry, I became fixated on writing in proper forms and meters. My senior year in a creative-writing class I was challenged to write in various forms including free verse which I quickly found to be my favorite. Feeling like with less structure I could actually say more, my writing shifted from being just an outlet and means of survival to a way to share my story and hopefully reach others that have felt or experienced the same,” Grey said.
“My poetry is often derived from life experiences and feelings. I tend to write best when I am able to be outside with my headphones in. I have always loved the poets that taught me what I know of poetry like Poe, Wordsworth, Longfellow, Michelangelo, Browning, Cummings, Dunbar, Byron, Thoreau, and Frost (whose house was five minutes from mine and whose yard I would often go sit in to write). But my favorite has been Whitman and led me to having “i contain multitudes” tattooed across my shoulder,” he said.
Grey has recently published a poem in little infinite magazine, and has recently completed his first chapbook collection of poems, “Will of the Words,” which will be for sale for the first time at WNP.
He has been a featured poet at Wednesday Night Poetry once before.
“I found WNP in my first year in Arkansas, and began going regularly while I was attending school. I attended for several weeks before Bud Kenny told me that it was about time I get up and say something myself,” he said.
“I got up and spoke for the first time and was overwhelmed by the positivity from the community and from Bud himself. He told me he would never forgive me if I didn’t keep coming, and writing, and speaking, and I’ve been coming ever since. WNP has given me the chance to meet so many amazing people and much of my adopted family. It is one of the safest spaces I have ever had the privilege of being a part of and brought me to my mentor as well, the amazing Kai Coggin,” Grey said.
“So many times, I have heard Sky at the mic, and said, ‘Man I wish I wish I came up with that line!’ He’s incredible; such a sensitive and intelligent young poet, with the wisdom and beauty of the poetry masters. You can tell he has been influenced by great ones when you hear the way he can work a metaphor,” Kai Coggin, WNP host, said in the release.
“I saw his talent a few years ago, and wanted to take him under my wing, to help him flourish and feel held. He’s been through a lot. I love him and support him for being Sky, boundless and open to a world of possibilities. It is an honor to be his mentor, and to make space for him to speak his beautiful heart at WNP.
“I remember the first time Bud asked me to feature for WNP almost 10 years ago — I remember printing a chapbook of my poems, and having it for sale that special night, how much that propelled me to become the poet I am today. I see my reflection in Sky. I can’t wait to have his chapbook in my hands. It’s going to be a special night.”
This week marks 1,746 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown Hot Springs since Feb. 1, 1989. “WNP is the longest-running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country.” Email wednesdaynightpoetry@gmail.com for more information.