Third Thursday Poetry Night, December 18

Enid Dame

Sanity Clause was in the house for the annual holiday open mic (but as Chico Marx once said, “everyone knows there is no sanity clause…”), & another tradition was the reading of the great, gone poet, Enid Dame’s, “Holiday Poem.” Tonight’s featured poet was Anna Boughtwood — but first a few of the open mic readers.

First on the list was Avery Stempel reading from a series of poems about walking around NYC, “Train to Penn Station” on the way there. Tom Bonville read about really writing, “Now I Know,” practicing in front of a mirror. — But Sanity Clause forgot what he was doing until reminded by the next reader that Sanity Clause needed to hand out the Xmas gift of poetry to each of the readers. & then we could proceed. 

David Gonsalves' “Touchstone,” a meditation on reincarnation, was inspired by a painting of the Eye of Horus on the side of a barn. Cat Syman was here for the first time, lucky her to join us for the raucous chaos of the holiday event; her poem, “Dear ChatGPT,” is a wish list letter of tasks for the computer to take on, poignant & humorous, satirical. 

Anna Boughtwood is an Albany poet who is active in the re-birth of the zine scene locally. She read a string of generally short poems, each with a succinct introduction, starting with a couple of house poems, the first, “Hell is For House Slippers” followed by a poem from a dream abut a house she will never have. But from then on the poems were nearly all satirical commentaries on the medical industry & her dealing with chronic illness, with such titles as “But Have You Tried Yoga?,” or “Please Arrive by 7:45 AM Reply 1 to confirm” (a satire of the questions on medical forms), or imagining a vacation instead of medical procedures & visits to CVS in “Vacation Leave in Lieu of Sick Leave.” In response to a question, “do you have any good veins?” she imagines the “good vein” on her left arm as a polite, honor roll student, & in response to a biopsy that sounded like an ear-piercing gun she wrote “I’m Getting My Next Biopsy at Claire’s.” Another poem championed the writing of her Diary in spiral notebooks in pen rather than on social media. She ended with recently written work, both love poems, “This Touch the Weight of Us” & a series of micro poems, barely a line or two long each, “Your Touch Loves the Distance.” Richly imagined, humorous, & personal poems well read.

After a short break we were back with the rest of the open mic writers but first I joined the list with an old poem, “Winter Light,” a rant against the season. 

The first of the rest of the list was Juni, whom I’d seen read at Paper Mood in Troy in August; tonight she read a poem responding to a comment from a barely named public figure (i.e., RFK Jr.) who said he had never written a poem (in addition to his remarks on autism), she read a poem to him & “hoped to make a gender neutral bathroom” of his grave.

Elaine Kenyon read a longer piece responding to, & in the style of, Andrea Gibson’s slam poems, on her image, & school bullies. Sally Rhoades is also a regular here, & elsewhere, read a long poem titled, “Long Shadows,” a love poem about hold hands with her husband mixed in with memories of her family — then she did as she does each year, sat on Sanity Clause’s lap. & the final open mic reader of the night Mena, “This Is What I Imagined Chicago is Like (I’ve Never Been to Chicago),” filled with precise images & family memories. 

(At this point I’d like to acknowledge the generosity of the writers who have come to this reading & open mic throughout the year. Your contributions help pay the featured reader & support the work of the Social Justice Center, & this year your donations to the passing of the hat have made it possible to contribute a total of $412 to the Center. Thank you everyone! & Keep Writing.)

This event takes place each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY at 7:30PM with a local or regional writer as the featured reader & an open mic for the rest of us. Thank you again for your generosity & for your words.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, December 14

The last one of 2025, with 4 of the regulars, minus my co-host, Nancy Klepsch.

I started off the sign-up list with a new poem inspired by my reading of a new translation (by Mark Polizzotti) of André Breton’s novel Nadja, “The Blue Wind” part of my series of witches poems; then a holiday piece & love poem to my mother, “Christmas 1945.”

Karen Fabiane has been a long-time supporter of this open mic, showed up today looking for cake — that was last month when she was also here, but she had poems to share & that’s why we were/are here. She had had printer problems in printing our her poems & the lighting in this space was less than optimal, so Sally Rhoades (up next) loaned Karen her cellphone flashlight to read “Pavilion,” an intricate swirl of words; then a memory poem of artist friends, “Someone.”

Sally was next to read from her notebook, a piece written on the train to NYC from Albany, a letter to Oklahoma poet Ken Hada, “Sunrise,” then a descriptive companion piece also written on the train, “The Sun is Setting.” 

Both of the pieces that David Gonsalves read were untitled, the first, on the hieroglyphics of Winter images, the second of the images of hands on a heavy overcoat.

Collar Works is a community arts organization based in Troy & has graciously invited 2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose to use their space at 50 4th Street each month. Please join us & share your written word each 2nd Sunday @ 2PM. Free!

Saratoga Springs Senior Center Open Mic, December 12

Perhaps one of the rewards of aging is the freedom to go to a poetry reading/open mic during the day — while others are at work. Our host, Rachel Baum, began with a poem titled “Assisted Living” by J. Allyn Rosser, which became a minor theme of the afternoon.

The featured poet was Elaine Handly who read poems from her forthcoming book, Heartbreak Grass, from Kelsay Books, in the Summer. She began with a series of poems related to weather, linking the poems with her short intros, “Weather,” “North Country,” “At the Airport,” & “Winter Fantasia.” Then on to one about having a cold, & “Hildegard von Bingen Has an Ocular Migraine” (imagining what the 12th Century abbess, composer & mystic would think of what she saw), & ended with a poem in which everything goes wrong, “Kablooey.” 

On to the sign-up sheet, with Rachel Baum reading her poem titled “Assisted Living.” Many of the poets read poems on the theme of Winter, such as Joanne Levine with a poem about longing for Winter in the Summer. Leslie Sittner picked up on the aging theme with the alliterative “Seven Senior Sins & Their Progeny.” 

Marilyn McCabe said she is not known for writing “love poems” & read an untitled piece that might be a love poem. David Gonsalves returned us to the theme of weather with his short poem titled “Under the Weather.” Elaine Klein read a new poem that also touched on the Winter theme, “Skating on the Milky Way.” This time of year I like to read Enid Dame’s “Holiday Poem,” written in the waning of the last century (“We need each other’s Light.”). Barbara Ungar read “Manifest,” a fantasy/dream of waking in a hospital. 

Jay Rogoff is about to become Saratoga’s Poet Laureate on January 1; he read a poem titled “The Home Garden,” then a new piece based on Zeno’s paradox, “Perfectionism.” Rhonda Rosenheck read 3 Haiku gathered together as “Heaven,” then “For Jane Who Is Becoming a Friend.” Susan Kress’ poem titled “The Art of Disappearing” centered on her parents. 

David Graham returned to the seasonal theme with “Winter Solstice Dreams.” Then Kathleen McCoy dipped into her book Ringing the Changes (Finishing Line Press, 2019) to read “In Dream’s Liminal Land.” Angela Snyder took up the theme of aging to bring the afternoon to a close with her piece titled “When Did I Become Old?”

This open mic takes place each 2nd Friday of the month at the Saratoga Senior Center, 290 West Ave., Saratoga Springs, NY, at 1:00PM — Free! 

Third Thursday Poetry Night, November 20

The featured poet, Sarah Michelle Sherman, did her homework & filled the house with her family & friends — after all, if they don’t come to one’s readings, who will? Tonight’s Muse was the recently gone poet Hal Sirowitz (1949 - 2025) whom I had seen perform at the Dodge Festival in Waterloo Village, NJ, in September 1996. He became well-known with his collection, Mother Said, (Crown, 199), poems of advice from his late mother, Estelle Sirowitz. I read “Crumbs,” which begins “Don’t eat any more food in your room, Mother said…”

On to the open mic list. Elaine Kenyon, host of the Poetry Night at the Schuylerville Public Library on the 2nd Wednesday, read a poem from her project in 2024 to write a poem each day responding to the Word of the Day, this one dated July 11, the descriptive “My Grandfather’s Swank.”

Samson Dikeman was here tonight to support the featured poet; he read his poem “Don’t Blame the Messenger” in honor of the 10th anniversary of when he started working for the US Postal Service, a humorous & touching celebration of a poet/mailman.

The next 2 readers were David Gonsalves & Avery Stempel. I was recording the night’s readers but didn’t notice that the battery had run out until it was time for the featured reader, & I wasn't taking notes, so I have no idea what they read.

Tonight’s featured reader, Sarah Sherman, corrected me during my introduction by saying that indeed she had been a featured poet here previously, on February 19, 2012 & one can find my Blog entry here .

She read a couple poems & a couple longer pieces, i.e., essays, & began with the poem “The Truth is in the Ashes” a breakup piece, about burning the detritus of a relationship; then to a poem titled “I’ll Do It Myself” holding her baby son, after the break up, affirming herself into the future as a mother.  Then on to the longer pieces, “For Those in Attendance at My Funeral,” imagining asking those at her funeral what they will say about her, & again her son; she ended with another long piece, a story of consoling a suicidal friend, “A Flirtatious Interest in Tomorrow,” her intervention saves him, perhaps. Her pieces are dark, but soul-searching, & show that an examined life is indeed worth living.

After the break I read my poem “Red Boots” based on a story a friend told me.

Amanda has been here for the poetry night a couple of times in the past & tonight she read a recent poem, “This Is the Train to Ronkonkoma,” responding to a family wedding she didn’t want to attend, like a woman drinking flutes of champagne on the LIRR.

Sally Rhoades read a tribute/memoir poem, “A Thousand Little Kindnesses” about the neighbors & friends that have carried her through life, from childhood to now.

In spite of my confusion & not reading the name written on the sign up sheet, the final poet of the night was Austin Houston who read a meditative piece, “A Walk Around the Neighborhood.”

The Third Thursday Poetry Night takes place monthly at the Social Justice Center in Albany, NY, 7:30PM, with a featured reader & an open mic for community writers — your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, November 9

On November 14, 2010 we held the very first 2nd Sunday @ 2 at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. Since then we were displaced by the COVID pandemic, then when the Arts Center didn’t have funding for Sundays so we moved on to Collar City Mushrooms, then when they had to move to Indian Ladder Farms, we couch-surfed to a couple other Troy locations until being invited by Collar Works to their space on 4th Street, where we continue on.

Rachel Baum, the host of the monthly open mic at the Saratoga Springs Senior Center, joined us for this anniversary celebration, with “Skunk Cage Haibun,” then from a children’s book in-progress titled Sit, Stay, Work, the entry “Dentist Dachshund.” 

I read my Blog post about that initial Sunday afternoon of poet + prose, which one can find here.

David Gonsalves reprised his piece he read a week or so ago “Dave’s Dybbuk,” then a rant “Large Language Golems.” 

My co-host oh these 15 years, Nancy Klepsch, also reprised poems she read at La Perla, the poem-on-a-bowl “Eat” & an elegy she co-wrote with her wife Lauren Pinsley, “Pierre Joris Talks with Jane Goodall in Heaven.”

Sally Rhoades who was also with us at the Arts Center 15 years ago, read an excerpt from her prose memoir, about the custody battle between her parents when she was a child.

Julie Lomoe began with a piece about her Toyota, “Me & My Sion,” then a sang a ditty she sang at the recent bra extravaganza Brava, “I Can Be Braless Now.”

Karen Fabiane began with a new bit of automatic writing titled “Many Voices One Word,” then a poetic portrait of a girl she knew, “Plays Around Guitar.”

Tim Verhaegen is another writer who was there 15 years ago; today he read a piece inspired by seeing billboards including one about the suicide hotline, “Signs & Sayings.”

Graydon had been here a few months ago, he returned to recite a piece from memory, a monologue about a visit to a doctor’s office & of a contemporary Sisyphus.

Robb Smith read an untitled, meditative piece about thresholds, beginning “I am a lover of liminal spaces …”

The afternoon came to a close with the afore-mentioned Lauren Pinsley, who is frequently here but rarely reads, with a prayer & song “It is a City,” then a funny piece of an experiment on ChatGPT “Who Is Nancy Klepsch?” — a fitting end to our anniversary of 15 years of 2nd Sunday @ 2 — on to another 15 years.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose is now at Collar Works, 50 4th St., Troy, NY — read 2 poems or 5 minutes of prose — Free!

Poetic License Reading, November 7

Mabel Lucia Smith

This was the 2nd of 2 readings by poets whose work inspired a visual artist(s) to create a piece on display along with the poem. The first reading was held in September when the exhibit was at the Fish Market Gallery in Troy; this November reading was held at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany while the exhibit was on display there. Other poets who did not have a poem in the exhibit also read their poems. A gathering of poets among the painters, as someone once wrote — or perhaps painters among the poets.

I served as MC/host of the reading & was ably introduced by artist Mabel Lucia Smith, who has a piece of visual art in the show, as “the man, the myth, the mustache.”

Pam Jacobson

The poets with poems in the show who read were Sylvia Barnard (“Stonehenge”), Pam Jacobson (“Tree Snag”), David Gonsalves (“page 22”), Mimi Moriarty (“Empty,” & also read “To My Father”), Jil Hanifan (“Mad Lark Laundry,” also read “Last Bright Day Before the Dark: Ode to November”), Rhonda Rosenheck (“All the Wonders,” also read “Earth’s Watch”), & Will Nixon (“Dancing Tulips,” also “Inquiring Minds”).

Will Nixon

The poets who read but did not have a poem in the show were Carlton Wells (a word-play sonnet, & “Wino in the Garden”), Marea Gordett (“Awaiting the Inauguration of a President”), & Frank Robinson (“Chicken,” & one beginning “Woke up this morning …”).

Visit the Poetic License website to find all the poems & the artwork the poems inspired.

Marathon Reading of Legs by William Kennedy, November 5

For the third year, a marathon reading of one of the novels from Kennedy’s Albany cycle at Albany Distilling on Livingston Ave., in Albany, NY, sponsored by the NYS Writers Institute. 

I was signed up for 3:00 but got well before to sit & listen. They were behind schedule, as always happens with readings like this. I had missed the beginning, had my copy of Legs, saw that they were somewhere in the section titled “Jack, Out of Doors.” My friend Roger Green from the Book Talk at the Albany Public Library was reading.

 

The lighting in the cavernous room was bad but I resisted using my flash until later in the day. I would sit & listen, sometimes just find where we were in my copy, take a photo. In the course of the next 3 to 4 hours I heard about 21 local folk read.

I was pleased to read 2 sections, a pretty hot & steamy in section “Playing the Jack.” After me, Wanda Fisher, who has hosted a radio program for years year read a section with multiple “fucks,” something she doesn’t get to say ever on the radio.

It was late afternoon, Happy Hour. My back & ass were sore from the metal folding chair, so I went up to the bar for a drink. I got a bourbon & soda, Ironweed, the title of the book we read in another marathon 2 years ago. Talked with lots of folks I knew, some had just read, others waiting to go on later. 

Bill Kennedy arrived with his entourage & was greeted heartily by a roomful of fans, as well he should be. He read later, towards the end. It was time for me to go, hoping to return later for the finale but didn’t make it. I had taken photos of those I had heard read, not always getting the name correct. I have the printout of the signup sheet but there are always substitutions & no-shows so I can’t entirely match up my shots with the list, or my notes for that matter. Lots of others have shared their photos on Facebook so there certainly is an archive.

I finished reading the rest of Legs that weekend, enjoying the play of language & the vitality of the characters in Kennedy’s inventive prose. Eventually I will post what I have on my Flickr site. One can find the shots from the marathon reading of Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game in November 2024 here.