Sometimes as I listen during an open mic, especially (and oh how I hate that spelling!), I find myself focusing on a particular reader’s moralizing and editorializing or cliche or heavy reliance on simile rather than metaphor, and that soon sends me into a disturbing zone.
What happens is that I begin editing heavily with an imaginary thick black marker, striking through all of the offending words and phrases, and pretty soon I’m tuning into only to the blackened blocks in the air and tuning out everything else.
Admittedly, I edit myself heavily, and this is a central step in the creation of many of my own works. Admittedly, too, I’m projecting myself onto the poor writer onstage. Admittedly, in particular, I’m forgetting to be humble and open here, star that I might imagine myself to be.
Does anyone else experience anything similar?
Jnana's Red Barn 
With sermons – oh yes!
Yes, absolutely. But in recent years, my thoughts on this have become much more gentle and generous, thoughts I’m learning to cultivate through practicing meditation and reading lots of Thich Nhat Hanh’s work. Not everything has to be perfect, or even half-way good, for that matter. After all, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, “No mud, no lotus”. So I try to be more accepting of the mud so that I can see the lotuses, too.
Hard not to when you taught Practical Crit for 38 years!
Tough audience. But one that can also be truly appreciative.