Before recorded music, people in small towns would gather in taverns and halls to share music with one another, Thursday the Open House Cafe hosted an open mic night and the music was very good, the atmosphere close, a sense of community rare in my experience living in so many different places. The Round House Cafe has become the heartbeat of our small town, everybody is worried that Scott and Lisa will keel over one day, but they seem up to the challenge and are expanding their hours and menu and activities.

There were professional singers and high school kids, big men with guitars and deep voices, an especially warm evening on a cold winter’s night.

Connection is one of the most powerful of all human drives, we all need it and seek it. In my small town of Cambridge, there is much that is good, many things that are not – small towns can suffer pettiness, divisions and surely a struggle for good work – but there is a deepening sense of community here that is very real, and sitting at open mic night, listening to this original music in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere was rich, small towns have been largely forgotten and abandoned by the economists and politicians scrambling to create a global economy that generates money but seems to have little regard for the lives of people.

The economists think rural America is too inefficient for the global economy, they have forgotten what people are for. In my town, from Battenkill Books to the Hubbard Hall Arts Center to the Country Gals Diner to the Round House Cafe, we are remembering.

If towns like  Cambridge have been forgotten by politicians, they have not gone quietly into the night. They are redefining themselves, building their own notions of connection and community. So it was at the Round House last night, I think I’ll read a couple of my poems there next month.