Salon Salvage, March 30

This was #19 in this monthly series! There were 4 poets reading this night, 1 local, the rest from out-of-town, & 4 hosts, if one counts concluding comments by Matthew Klane. 

Steven Alvarez

Amie Zimmerman got the night going with a general welcome, then Michael (introduced as a “guest host”) introduced the 1st reader Steven Alvarez, who read 3 poems from 3 different books, not identified, but the pieces seem to be interrelated, & were read fast, almost pressured speech. The 1st seemed to be set in 2008 & depicted the scene in Times Square; the 2nd was apparently a connected story & titled “Land of Red Daylight 2;” the 3rd was a memoir of his father’s 11 months ago.

Shira Dentz

Amie introduced the 2nd reader, Shira Dentz, who is local. She began with the title poem from her 2020 book from PANK Books, Sisyphusina, a piece about women aging. Then on to a series of newer, eco-poems, pieces titled “Small Things” (micro-plastics), “Custom Made” (with the line “we need birds & blue sky”), “Greenway,” “Sparks,” & others. She concluded with a family memoir of the Bronx, “Black Flow” saying “this poem has scribbles in it” which she represented by crumbled paper.

Jenna Hamed

Hajar Hassaini, who, with Amie Zimmerman, is one of the co-coordinators of Salon Salvage, introduced the next reader, Jenna Hamed who read a piece of “instant poetry” printed out on a roll of pin-feed paper, titled “3/30/2024” — how instant is that! — a meditation on the war on Palestine, read quietly, in a flat voice, a string of automatic writing, some in Arabic, then on to a related issue, a link on her Instagram to a fundraiser for “HEAL Palestine,” which you can find @heal.palestine

Kamalya Omayna Youssef

Hajar introduced the final reader, but first called for a “palate cleansing” moment of silence. Kamalya Omayna Youssef took some time setting up her stacks of texts, read from a small press chapbook some political/revolutionary meditations as if they were fragments, then on to another stack of papers, an intensely introspective piece, perhaps a love poem, &/or on poems & language. She ended with “an old poem,” also fiddling with the booklet, to her family, titled “There’s a Hole in It.”

A grand, moving mix of themes & images, & even of the forms of production, the kind of thing Salon Salvage is known for. The curators are Amie Zimmerman, Matthew Klane, & Hajari Hussaini. You can find the event each last Saturday of the month at Weathered Wood in downtown Troy, NY, at 13 Second St.; the 7:00PM time seems to be the time they open the door. One can find information about the upcoming reading on the Facebook page, & on the Instagram page, salonsalvagetroy 

Third Thursday Poetry Night, March 21

Back in June, 2006, the Lark St. Bookshop where I had been holding the Third Thursday Poetry Night since February, 2004 closed. I approached the Director of the Social Justice Center, Victorio Reyes Asili, to ask if the storefront space there was available for the monthly open mic. Interestingly enough, Victorio had been a featured reader at the Bookshop in April 2004; welcomed us to the Center’s space as the Third Thursday home & that continued to today, with the featured reader this night the very same Victorio Reyes Asili, Ph.D. 

But before we got into the open mic list, I invoked our Muse for the night, the gone American poet  Jayne Cortez (1934 - 2021) by reading her poem “Find Your Own Voice” from her book Jazz Fan Looks Back (Hanging Loose Press, 2002); Cortez was in Albany twice to read her work, first in February, 1989 at the NYS Writers Institute, then again in October, 2010 at the Sanctuary for Independent Media, in Troy.

The first open mic reader on the list was Mia Morosoff, who is Victorio’s mother; she read a sad, longing poem about a man waiting for a train, leaving. Sally Rhoades read her poem “I Can’t Hear You,” that she wrote at her first time the Scissortail Creative Festival in Ada, OK, about a native chief inviting her to find her own voice (included in her just-published poetry booklet Where Light Falls). 

Ray Drumsta, here for the 1st time, had been the 1st to arrive & helped me to set up; he read a piece titled “Another Plane,” a portrait of a combat veteran needing to go back. 

Out featured reader, Victorio Reyes Asili, read largely from an unpublished chapbook, beginning with a poem titled “Erasure Re-Mix 1994 After Biggie” based on the text of Juicy, a famous hip-hop piece by The Notorious B.I.G. (1972 - 1997), the poem preserving the last 2 syllables of each verse, the poet giving the classical prosodic names for the feet. A major he piece he read/performed was from an incomplete “Crown of Sonnets,” (see the footnote below) 9 sonnets, in the language, style, & content of hip hop, the lines short as in song lyrics. He concluded with 2 short sections from a verse novel, 2 Hispanic characters in dialogue, talking about brujas (witches/healers). Victorio’s performance was a compelling mix of hip-hop infused with the academic tradition of analysis. 

After a short break we returned to the open mic list, & I led off with my poem about an astronomical phenomenon (no, not an eclipse) but “The Transit of Venus.” David Gonsalves followed with a short piece, as are many of his poems about teenage grand kids.

Austin Houston read a tender poem titled “Pillar” about his father. Maria Sohn’s piece titled “Endless Summer” was about a relationship.

The final performer was Victorio’s sister, Taina Asili, singer/songwriter, she recited the lyrics of a song on economic democracy, with the line that “liberation is on the horizon.”

It isn’t always such a family affair here (although poets are perhaps family), but you can join us each month on the third Thursday for a featured poet & an open mic for community writers, at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:30PM (sign-up anytime after 7:00PM) — your donations support poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.

The footnote:

A Crown of Sonnets is a sequence of sonnets usually addressed to a person or concerned with a single theme; each successive sonnet uses as its first line the last line of the preceding sonnet. The final sonnet ends with the same line that begins the first sonnet, thus completing the circle. An advanced form is called a heroic crown made up of 15 sonnets, but the final binding sonnet is made up of all the first or last lines of the preceding 14 poems.

Susan Oringel — Carnevale Book Launch, March 17

This reading & book-signing was held at the Unity Church in Albany on King St. The Senior Minister is the Rev. Brigid Beckman  There was diverse audience in the Sanctuary of friends, fellow members of the congregation, & poets. Sue is well-known in the poetry community, & has a previous chapbook of poems, My Coney Island from Finishing Line Press (2019).

Sue read a hefty selection of about 30 poems from her new book, Carnevale (David Robert Books), beginning, appropriately enough given the setting, with what sounded like a prayer, “Poor Everybody.” Then on thru the book.

There were memoir poems of her parents & Coney Island & food (“Chopped Chicken Livers,” “Not Just Any Old Food,” “My Father’s Workshop,” “Sundowning,” “Mom & Dad Barbecue in Heaven,” etc.). 

The section titled “Carnevale” contains love poems, grieving poems for her late partner Don, memories of good times & later. At one point she paused the poems to acknowledge the support the community of Unity Church provided her during her grief.

The final section of the book, “Beyond Us, Something,” is what might be called “spiritual reflections,” with titles like “Middle-Aged in Spring,” “Jim’s Theology of Ice Cream” (for a former pastor of Unity Church), & others, ending coming full circle with the poem titled “My Coney Island.”

The poems with their stories, little & big, kept the audience in rapt attention, a pleasant way to spend some time on a Sunday “after church.”

Carnevale is available from the publisher’s website or from the poet directly at her readings, & I’m sure your local Independent bookstore can order it for you. 

Support Your Local Poet.

 

Writers Mic, March 13

Another of the Zoom open mics with a loyal attendance, this one mostly regional upstate NY poets, is hosted by poet Jackie Craven, sometimes from Florida, tonight back in Schenectady.

David Graham, from even further up North, read 2 poems bracketing his stroke; from the year before the stroke, “Parade of Ghosts,” a pandemic poem, seasoned with humor & philosophy & his dog; then a poem from a year after his stroke, “The Other Side of the Hour” in which his father speaks to him from the Dead.

Susan Oringel read from a new series of poems about the aftermath of having bladder cancer — complete with “trigger warnings,” —  from early on in the process “Red Anemone, Diagnosis,” & from later on “At the Market in Istanbul” in a toilet.

Scott Morehouse injected a dose of hysterically funny fiction with a piece titled  “Hustle & Bustle,” an argument at a law firm about going on a diet, coming up with bustles for men that becomes a fad (pretty sure I’d forego that fashion).

Rachel Baum read from her new chapbook on guns, How to Rob a Convenience Store,  with yet another “trigger warning” (perhaps the pun intended), “I See your Ghost,” & “No One they Knew” in the mind of a school shooter.

Alan Catlin began with a poem written today that will be the last poem in a new book of bar poems Last Call for Lazarus, this poem about a bus boy & a couple of nurses; then a poem pulled from his archives, thoughts in 4 parts on viewing paintings in the Fred Dana Marsh museum in Ormond Beach, Florida. 

I didn’t bother with any trigger warnings for my 2 poems about my beloved lilac bushes, in different seasons, “The Lilacs,” & “Lilacs Again.”

Susan Jewell’s poem her nephew’s snowmobile trips, “Ode to the Snowmobiler,” depicted a grand vision of the nephew as a heroic, historical figure.

Jackie Craven read a couple of her poems in which times of the day, even time itself, are depicted as characters; she read the prose poem, “Clocks Can’t be Trusted in the Electric City” (clocks in Schenectady with different times), & one beginning “Management has hired 3 new seconds…” which may indeed be the title.

If you would like to join this congenial monthly open mic, on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, you can find information & the link on the Facebook site Writers Mic.

All-Genre Open Mic out of Bennington, March 12

A good turnout on Zoom, better than some nights in-person, pre-pandemic, when Charlie Rossiter hosted this event at the Tap House in Bennington, now just a short stroll to my computer in the other room. We went around twice, 1 poem each round.

& so once again I was first on the sign-up list, to read from a mini-chapbook, Behind the Barn, I published  some years back, after a 3 Guys from Albany trip to Kentucky, containing the found poems of Jodi BlowJob. In the 1st round I read the introduction, then in the 2nd round “After What You Said.”

Francesca Sidoti began with a “trigger warning” for “Cathead 2, The Year of the Tiger,” about 1974 & the rock’n’roll music of the time. In her 2nd round she read a memoir about herself, having different lives at different times. 

Cheryl Rice read a poem about a party at her hometown of Freeport, Long Island, “Bird Out of Nest” both real & figuratively; in the 2nd round read one titled “3 Bottles” about feeding her lover, & always having enough of Japanese mayonnaise on hand.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read “How We Live,” a poem from his Milwaukee days, and getting a used refrigerator they named “George the Norge.” His 2nd round poem was from a road trip years ago, passing through “Carhenge” Nebraska where old car bodies are stacked to represent Stonehenge.

Sharon Smith is relatively new to this group, in the 1st round she read a memoir of her parents after the rhythm method of birth control failed, “Their Best Mistake.” Her 2nd-round poem was an elegy for Rusty Young of the rock band Poco, who was a friend of hers, he died in April, 2021; the band’s biggest hit was “Crazy Love” in 1979.

Sherri Bedingfield is a regular here, read an older poem, written in Galway Scotland about birds “At a Window;” then in the 2nd round another bird poem about geese flying, a memoir of her father.

Naomi Bindman began with 2 short chapters from a memoir-in-progress, titled, “In Which Mom Talks to Us about God,” the first about sex, then one about her new baby brother. In her 2nd round she read a piece titled “Tree Heart,” Winter walk of a teacher & her class measuring an ancient tree. 

Julie Lomoe reprised 2 poems I have happened to hear her read in the last week, “Bela & the Rats” which she read this past Friday at the Saratoga Senior Center Poetry/Storytelling Open mic, then on the 2nd time around a piece she read this past Sunday at Collar City Mushrooms “Excess Baggage” a paean to Cadbury Eggs, proclaiming “what good is life without chocolate?” 

Tom Nicotera read 2 poems with light playing a role; in the 1st round “The Dance of Light,” a meditation & description of the rising Sun, in the 2nd round “Shadow,” from a series of “breezeway poems” about seeing a fox, & glad not to be his victim.

Mark W. O’Brien said he has written a lot of Elvis poems recently, tonight read “Elvis Lives,” explaining that Elvis followed the St. Louis Cardinals, & once had a conversation with the great sports announcer Harry Carey; then a piece about Elvis getting telepathic messages from aliens & thus the origin of his white suit. Many of us have our Elvis poems.

If you want to join this friendly group of poems each month on the 2nd Tuesday on Zoom, but you are not on Charlie’s email list, send him an email at charliemrossiter@gmail.com & ask to join the list.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, March 10

It was a full house at Collar City Mushrooms for our monthly open mic, having to add spaces to the sign-up sheet. 

It was most appropriate that co-host Nancy Klepsch was the lead-off reader; she read 2 epistolary poems, “Dear Taylor” (as in Swift), & “Dear Nex” to Nex Benedict, a trans student who died after a fight in a school bathroom in Oklahoma. David Gonsalves read a couple of seasonal pieces, “Spring Song” (“a day to make things up”), &, as we had just “sprung ahead” our clocks, “Marigold Standard Time.” Julie Lomoe read about herself, her weight, in a piece titled “Excess Baggage” responding to a prompt.

I haven’t seen Karen Fabiane at an open mic in quite a while & it was good to hear her read 2 poems from a 2022 book Between Canal & Ida, “I Fucked St. Joan” (which I recall from an earlier chapbook Seeing You Again), then “Goddess Park” (like a theme park). Tom Bonville read “Morning Coffee,” instructions/family recipe for how to serve it, including a raw egg in the mug. Sally Rhoades said she was reading 2 of her husband, Hasan’s, favorite poems, both about cemeteries, the first about a military cemetery “White Crosses,” the second “Don’t Put Plastic Flowers on My Grave.”

Tim Verhaegen read a piece of fiction, a saga set in 1940 of a rich widower & his careless children. It being almost Spring I read 2 related poems, “The Lilacs” & “The Lilacs, Again.” Tom Corrado has been writing his “Screen Dumps” for quite some time now, & publishing them in give-away chapbooks, today read number “Screen Dump 745” !

Rhonda Rosenheck read what said was (& indeed sounded like) an “abecedarian” titled “Names for Snow,” & a seasonally related Haiku titled “Lost Scarves." John Mason read what sounded like an eco-poem, “The Flaming Rain” angry rain on his porch roof, then he too read an abecedarian poem about playing ball on Valentine’s Day “Winter’s Fall.”

Anne Hohenstein started off with anaphoric poem where the phrase “Are we brave enough…” repeated at the beginning of each line, then “Requiem” (for Patricia in her grave, she said). We ended with the proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, Avery Stempel, who read a rhapsody of fungi “Always Something New,” then briefed us on recent activities in the advocacy for psilocybin accessibility. 

We meet each month on the 2nd Sunday @ 2 for poetry + prose at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY — all you need to know. 

Saratoga Senior Center Poetry/Storytelling Open Mic, March 8

I was pleased to be the featured poet at this new series, filling in for Judith Prest (who is much prettier) who will re re-scheduled. The host & coordinator is Saratoga poet Rachel R. Baum (who is also more pretty than I am). She opened the event by reading her poem to an ex, inspired by Taylor Swift “Roping the Scapegoat” (but in my notes the title could be “Raping the Scapegoat” which I think it is not).

I read for about 15 minutes, followed by an open mic. I began with a Haibun by the recently gone poet Stuart Bartow from his book of Haiku, one branch (Red Moon Press, 2019), a piece that I had read to the ocean at Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA after Stu’s death, then a poem by Judith Prest from Geography of Loss (Finishing Line Press, 2021) “Prayer for a Broken Land” a golden shovel eco-poem. Of my own work I read “Joe the Bartender,” 2 base all poems “Vamos Gatos” & “Waiting for Jacqueline Robinson” (both from Baseball Poems, A.P.D., 2019), then from my “poem cards” the imitation “Challenging Richard Brautigan,” a nod to Rachel’s recent chapbook from bottle cap press, Richard Brautigan’s Concussion.

I was happy to see poet Catherine Clark here, whom I first met many years ago at a NYS Writers Institute sponsored workshop with the late, great Irish poet John Montague. She read a couple poems from a poetry collection Oh Shining Moon, including the title poem, & the rural “King Road Spring Song.”

David Gonsalves, whom I see frequently down in Albany at other open mics, was up next; his first poem, titled “Honey & Thyme,” was an anaphoric repetition at the start of each line of the phrase “Consider the one…” then he also had a “Spring Song.”

Jay Rogoff, who had been the featured poet here last month, read an ekphrastic piece titled “Three Women” describing a painting by John Currin (from The Long Fault, Louisiana State University Press, 2008).

David Graham, who not only has been a featured poet at North Country poetry venues, including here, also shows up at open mics, in-person & online, said he stumbled on an old poem he barely remembered writing that fell into his series of graveyard poems, “Sounds Like Singing.”

Kathy Pelky (not sure of correct spelling) wanted to read a poem written by someone else, & she didn’t know their name, but it was a short poem the she carries around with her, containing the line, “one day I wrote a poem that was better than its author” — feel like that often myself.

Carol Shup Star, whom I remember seeing at the great Caffè Lena poetry open mic, read two visually bright poems, the first about morning glories, “Heavenly Blue,” the other titled “Moonlight Ashes.”

Rhonda Rosenheck, who also is out-&-about poet, began with a poem about craving peace “My Heart is in the East,” then a memoir piece, a combination of Haiku & tankas, “Massachusetts Past Life.” 

Julie Lomoe read a poem about her past life in NYC’s SoHo district, a piece for International Women’s Day, “Bela & the Rats.”

If you are available in the middle of the day this monthly open mic (with a featured reader) takes place on the 2nd Friday of the month (usually) at the Saratoga Senior Center, 290 West Ave,. Saratoga Springs, NY, at 1:00PM — check the events calendar on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild for any changes.