Poetic Brew, a monthly open mic for poetry in San Diego, recently posted a note on Facebook after the February event:

February’s Nanninga (made from fragments of February’s open mic reading)

Speak like a good dog
searching the reckless abandon
Like frothy waves lapping the seaside
where silent crickets tell us of war

Our horrified hearts refuse to answer
showcasing fingers pointed up and down:
the mind of an arrow but dead in the eye

Before this mountains fell like trees
and we, the husks of angels, would
spring to our feet in deafening applause,
too tired I suppose
To risk the fear of losing ….. CONTINUE READING–>

I hadn’t noticed the January post, where host Eber Lambert wrote “Each month the host will select catchy lines from the poems read that evening and compose a found poem from that. It will henceforth be called the “Nanninga” in honor of Bob Nanninga, the late host of the La Paloma poetry slam who could create these like no other.”

For those of you not familiar with Bob Nanninga, he was an actor, writer, purveyor of coffee, environmental activist and erstwhile host of the aforementioned Full Moon Poetry Slam in Encinitas, California.

It’s been just over a year since Bob passed away…  so thanks Eber for the nice reminder!  I can’t say Bob was a friend, but I did know him (back in my 101 Artists’ Colony days)  and can say he was an asset to the Encinitas community.

And so, next time you go to an open mic, or a poetry slam or a DimeStories event…  jot some notes, go home and write your own nanninga instead of a haiku or villanelle.