July 22, 2009

Poets Speak Loud, June 29

Back at the Lark Tavern, surprising the diners who suddenly found a poetry reading breaking out, with our host, Mary Panza.

I read "The Cardinal" & the old sex-love poem, "Decoupage Me," sticky with glue. Don Levy's "Old Tee-Shirt" harkened back to the days of the QE2, then the new poem "The Younger-Older Poet." Brian Sullivan read "Blue is a Wonderful Now," a character study. C. Brossack's 2 poems were both short line rhymers, one in the woods at night, the other "Superman" (a love poem).

Todd Fabozzi read about a job ("Family Friendly") & "Clowns" at the Mall. RM Engelhardt re-did his "Instructions & Invocation..." poem, this time for Michael Jackson, & read about murder in the inner city. Michael Purcell's quote was from Henry David Thoreau then read about technology over-shadowing the human spirit, & "No Limits," on heroes & activists. Tess Lecuyer read from Annie Dillard (ah, Tess, we want your poems!). And I have no idea what Joe Hollander did, but it was interesting at the time.

The featured poet was introduced as "Ole Boy" but we've seen him before as Jonathan Jones. His work verges on song & hip-hop, with some social commentary/sermonizing; he did actually sing a couple times, in a fine voice. He too referenced the recent death of Michael Jackson, in his first poem (with a long title I didn't catch). "Pull Your Damn Pants Up" was a sermon on some of the more stupid elements in pop culture. One of the images I liked & noted from his poems was of driving on a journey & he is the driver; another was that we must play the cards we are handed. Good, entertaining work & a relaxed performer.

Most last Mondays of the month, at the Lark Tavern on Madison Ave. in Albany -- check out the AlbanyPoets calendar for complete information.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like Ole Boy's reading but felt it was a pity he missed hearing most of the open mic. Don

Anonymous said...

Where's the blog of Live From the Living Room. We did have a reading this month, I swear!!!! Don