Mike Jung reads a piece from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche on Thursday night during the Open Mic Poetry Night at Casablanca Beer, Wine & Piano Lounge. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

The Beat Re-Generation

Lodi poets are flocking to Casablanca's open mic night, and encouraging even more people to share their lyrical lines.

Poet, screenwriter and temporary mechanic Roger Harris sits at the bar in Casablanca. The atmosphere seems different, undefinable, somehow nostalgic. The lights glow on vintage mementos of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

Greg Baltran stands behind the bar, while poet Mike Jung sits at the bar, reading from a thick volume of "The Treasury of American Poetry." Oversized Victorian paintings and an intricate model of a historic ship become the setting of Lodi's open mike poetry reading in which many aspiring poets read the classics as much as they do modern works.

Harris and Jung form Balatronis Productions. Together, they are on a mission to bring a life of poetry to Lodi. Already in its sixth week at Casablanca Beer, Wine and Piano Lounge, the Thursday night open mic poetry nights are giving local poets an opportunity to put down their pens and say their personal lyrics out loud.

In a dark corner, a shelf is lined with the books Harris and Jung haul around. Byron, Oscar Wilde, "Medieval German Literature," "The Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes," Emerson, Frost: They are for reference, and sometimes people read from these books. The stage is a microphone that stands between a pristine mini grand piano and chairs covered in Victorian-esqe material. Many of the readers have come alone and sit quietly as they read or sip from full glasses of imported beer and fine wines.

For Harris, poetry is the best kind of self expression there is.

Harris got an early start in writing. At a time when he was very sick, a nurse read him "Lord of the Rings." From then on, he made it his goal to write like the author Tolkien.

Like his mother who used writing as a way to confront her own struggles, Harris turned to writing to make sense of the environment around him.

"I was pretty doom and gloom as a kid. I knew, as a kid, there were bad things," he said. "(As a teenager,) I was the kid in the trench coat with long black hair who would always be writing."

He began writing dramatic short stories, but wrote his first poem to his mother at the age of 10. They were homeless, and in the letter he pleaded with her to let him live with his grandmother.

He doesn't write like many of the modern day poets who yell and perform as they read into a microphone. He's not a fan of famous poets like Maya Angelou. In fact, he can't stand her. His writing reads like the works he appreciates, mainly English Romantics. His favorite poem is "When You Were Old," by William Butler Yeats. He likes Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde and even Jack Kerouac whose famous novel, "On the Road," that Jung says has been romanticized by many wanderlusts who dream of hitchhiking and living only on self exploration.

It's no surprise the book has inspired the guys of Balatronis Productions to do the same thing. Only they will travel the United States in a 1976 RV. It will be filled with red velvet, brothel lamps and the orange and brown interior will become a swingers dream, Harris and Jung joke as they talk about the upcoming "extended pilgrimage." As they travel, they will continue to do what they are currently doing in Lodi — starting open mic poetry nights. They will volunteer, read and work with youth. Harris will continue to write his screenplay that somehow involves a unicorn.

But for now, they focus on the Casablanca poets.

John Royce Bell sits at the bar eating pizza and preparing to read his poetry on stage for the first time. He is nervous, and not sure if he has his poem memorized. It's common to read from notebooks and slips of paper, but he says he doesn't want to. Nature and the mountains are his inspirations, but so is "the girl messing me around," he said.

The audience listens to Jung as he continues to read from the same book. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Patrice Gates arrives early and makes her way to the collection of poetry books. Though she is quiet and soft spoken in her long, red coat, she is no stranger to the poetry scene. She's read many times at Casablanca and other open-mic nights. She plans to read one of her favorite poems, "From Blossoms," by Li Young Lea.

At 8:30 p.m., as Harris prepares to open the microphone, more readers and listeners find seats with their notebooks and laptop computers. Many fit the poet's profile in vintage tweed caps and blazers, while others stick to jeans and sneakers.

Under the purple glow of a black light, Harris quickly quotes Voltaire, saying poetry is the music of the soul.

Bell is the first to read. And though he didn't memorize the poem as he hoped, he read "The Past" with confidence and shared his message that admonishes people about growing old and remembering the good times.

Harris doesn't care if people read their own writing or other's. For him, the key thing is getting a community to realize the importance of reading and writing poetry.

"Poetry is literally every day magic," he said. "It's the best words in the best order."

Contact reporter Lauren Nelson at laurenn@lodinews.com.