Third Thursday Poetry Night, April 16

National Poetry Month in Albany, NY is like any other month in Albany, NY, & as happens each month we gathered at the Social Justice Center for a reading & an open mic. The featured reader was poet Valerie Temple, writing as Bertha Blunt. But first I invoked the Muse, tonight, once again the poet Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986), as his Birthday was fast approaching on April 18, then we turned to the open mic sign-up sheet.

The first poet up was Doug, who performed off mic, as he is wont to do, with a rhyming piece on lifelong eating habits leading to him slowing down & disease as he got older. David Gonsalves read “Drive” from his big binder of poems, an imaginative & humorous drive through one end of his name to another. 

Marie read a piece in response to being with a friend with mental health issues, written in the friend’s persona “Do You See Me?” Sally Rhoades read a recent poem that she read a the recent Scissortail Creative Writing Festival held in Ada, OK, “Picking Over Old Bones,” a memoir of her mother.

The featured reader, Valerie Temple has read here a number times. This night she read as "Bertha Blunt" from her book Discovery of A Blunt Treasure (Xulon Press, 2023). She began with 2 poems addressed to a friend with whom she traveled to Europe & had a falling out,  “A Friend You Doubt” & “You Were Not My Friend.” Then on to a poem about her mother, “Good Pain - Bad Pain Give Thanks Just the Same,” one about her sugar addiction, “Rag Us to Dust Hustle,” a poem from a high school experience “Exposed in Prose,” “Birthday Agenda,” & “Holy Wood or Bust?” She both read & recited from memory, her work, the poems were generally upbeat/positive & often in rhyme & with humor.

After a brief break I read from my folder of poetry-related poems “The Poet’s Coat” quoting the late Laura Boss (1938 - 2021), “Sometimes I think clothes are a purer aesthetic form than poetry.” Amanda (Pelletier) did the poem that she performed for the Slam finals at Cafe Euphoria, “I don’t have a soul…” on love & a rib cage, she is her own soulmate. Tara had arrived early & helped me get set up; she read a piece responding to an article on domestic abuse that focused more on the abuser than on the victim, “Say Her Name."

Amina Gueye has been working at the Center for Law & Justice & the Alice Moore Black Arts Cultural Center; she read a poem titled “Mukhagni,” a Hindu funeral ritual that translates as “mouth fire,” her poem responding to the smell of smoke from Canadian wildfires that reached her in New York City.

& like the dissipation of the smoke our words rose into the night air. But we come back to the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY each third Thursday of the month at 7:00PM for more poetry — a local or regional poet as the featured reader & an open mic for the rest of us. Your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the SJC.

2nd Sunday @2 — Poetry + Prose, April 12

A handful of poets gathered once again in the cavernous lobby of the former bank that is home to Collar Works, the Troy arts organization that has given this reading series a home for local writers. The hosts are Nancy Klepsch & I, Dan Wilcox.  

Nancy was first on the signup sheet & began with a seasonal happy poem, “It’s Still OK to Celebrate,” then a tribute to a South Troy matriarch, the mother of local poet Mary Panza, “Permission to Receive Prayers for Mary Panza the First.”

David Gonsalves read a Nature poem composed of 2 Haiku, then a piece titled “S’matters” like a series of bar jokes.

Tim Verhaegen read a long prose piece on family history, a missing cousin & other discoveries found in a genealogy search, pondering what it would be like to have known him.

I read poems from my folder of poems about poets, poetry, etc., for National Poetry Month, an old piece about a call from “Garrison Keilor,” then a poem card about Poem in Your Pocket Day, “April 30.” 

Julie Lomoe read a bouquet of Nature Haiku forthcoming in an anthology from Moonstone Press of Philadelphia, PA, then a piece on aging along with the Rolling Stones & her fantasy of fucking them all.

Jeffrey signed up after listening to other poets reading their work, his piece was titled “Black & Blue.”

Agapi had joined this open mic in the past when it was at Collar City Mushrooms on 2nd Ave., today she read the meditative “As the Body Fades,” & “Rapture” in which she imagines someone back into life, in images of flowers.

This is a relaxed, informal open mic for writers in whatever genre held on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 2PM, at Collar Works, an arts collective, at 50 4th Street, Troy, NY, — Free! 

Favorite Poem Night, April 9

Another event for the Laureate Poetry Series organized by Jay Rogoff, the Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs, NY, for National Poetry Month this held at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. I've included the entire list of poems below because it makes for an eclectic reading list across the ages. I'm guessing that each of the readers below have more than one "favorite poem," as indeed I do.  

A couple of program notes: Jay Rogoff started off the reading with "West Wind," by that most prolific of writers, Anonymous; Joe Bruchac introduced his reading by singing a Lakota song; & Adriana DiScipio came up from New York City read. The Dutcher Room at the Library was filled with listeners & readers, from throughout the region.

POET POEM READER

Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach”         Peg Boyers

Amiri Baraka  “Preface to a Twenty Volune Suicide Note” Michael Walterich

Jack Butler “The Changing of Vision with Time” George Drew

Samuel Taylor Coleridge  “Kubla Khan.                                      Robert Ridley

Or, A Vision in A Dream    A Fragment”                      

Billy Collins “The Lanyard”         David Graham

Jack Hirschman  “Path”                 Kristina Kulin

Bob Kaufman  “Believe, Believe”         Dan Wilcox

Ted Kooser  “A Glint.”         Johanna Garrison

Adrian Mitchell  “To All in the So-Called Defense  

                                        Industry Poem”                                Andrea Cunliffe

Marge Piercy  “To Be of Use”         Adriana Di Scipio

Sylvia Plath “I Am Vertical”         Autumn Connor

Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)   “A Community of the Spirit” Kathleen McCoy

Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias”         Leslie Mechem

William Stafford   “Report to Crazy Horse” Joseph Bruchac

Frank Stanford “The Singing Knives”         Steve Stern

Sara Teasdale           “There Will Come Soft Rains” Barbara Ungar

William Wordsworth From “Ode: Intimations of Immortality 

     from Recollections of Early Childhood”     Rachel Baum

William Butler Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” Jay Rogoff

Add-ons:

William Shakespeare "Sonnet 29"                                                  Michael Arnish

Wendell Barry            "The Want of Peace"                                    Michael Lubell

John McCrae              "In Flander's Field"                                      Robert Ridley

April is the Foolest Month, April 1

The start of a very busy month. The new Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs, Jay Rogoff, sent out a list of 14 events in April, starting with this, “an evening of original funny poems by local luminaries,” (including me), in the Downstairs Lounge at the Whitman Brewing Company & Walt Café in Saratoga Springs. Jay was the host & MC; he said he chose the poets because we each had made him laugh out loud at some point in time. He began with his shortest poem, one about bacteria eating grime. We read in alphabetical order.

Joe Bruchac read a series of funny aphorisms, then performed Robert Frost’s “Whose Woods…” as a tango — it was! 

Jackie Craven’s poems point to her quirky, surrealist view of the world; she read “Still Life with Stuffed Olives” & sort of a break-up poem, “In Which I Try to Leave My Husband But Cannot Find the Words.” 

David Graham said he was reading poems from some 30 years ago, “Self-Portrait As a Runner-Up,” & a poem in 2 short parts, “Today Two Things Happened.”

Carol Graser’s funny poems were titled “The Winter She Left Us for Temporary Work in Kansas,” & “The Appendix” (as a woman).

Maggie Greaves began with a poem of collaged lines, “Things My Daughter Said During the Wildfires,” then one written this February “The Empires of Apricots,” & one written in her youth about an imagined figure skater, “Explication of the Presence of Ann Marie.”

Elaine Handley read about everything going bad, “Kafflooey” (which I don’t know how to spell).

After a break, Jay came back to read his poem “Horoscope.”

Susan Kress read a poem, “Tidying Up,” inspired by the Japanese author Marie Kondo, then, using her cellphone as a prop, read “The Muse is in Transit.”

Marilyn McCabe read “Strange Arrangements,” based on her early majoring in Biology in college, then “Lettuce,” &, based on anthropology, “We the People.”

Mary Sanders Shartle read a series of short pieces from a chapbook Advice to the Karma, including found poems (a great source of humorous poems), “Mortise & Tenon Tips” (dedicated to the late poet Naton Leslie, the sexy “Cleans Up with a Glass of Water,” & “Avoiding Fights.” 

Barbara Ungar noted that this was the 1st night of Passover & began with "Free Form Judaism,” then “Grieving for Seniors,” & a poem about her son’s fascination with the word “penis” “Now We Are 15.” 

Nancy White read a poem from 40 years ago, the Biblical “Eve Leaves,” then a monologue in the persona of Bill Clinton, & from her forth-coming collection What She Said, a poem about going to beauty school.

Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos

I brought up the rear by reading in its entirety the mini-chapbook, A Little Book of Irish Pub Jokes (A.P.D., 2023), about my infant grandson & his dog.

There was a little time left, so Jay opened it up to others & a poet he had met in one of his workshops stepped up, Robert Ridley, to read a poem “for Cindy.”

With so many poets reading there were of course many of their poet friends in the audience, including photographer Thomas Dimapoulus who posted some of his photos on his Facebook page. This was a congenial venue for poetry — food & drinks were available — the upstairs bar & cafe are spacious & the staff was friendly & efficient. I have found a new place to go to when I am in Saratoga. https://www.waltandwhitmanbrewing.com/

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic, March 24

For one reason or another, mostly the Winter weather, this is the first time I’ve been to the Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic this year & the first time I’ve been here since the switch to the 4th Tuesday. But it seems timeless once I walked through the door, same wonderful, eclectic poets, 1st class featured readers (tonight, Natalya Sukhonos), same witty host, Carol Graser, who began this night with an eco-poem by Martha Silano, “Can’t Complain,” from her book Terminal Surreal (Acre Books, 2025).

Natalya Sukhonos is a native of Odessa, Ukraine, a poet, scholar, & teacher. Tonight, she read from her new book of poems Sunlight Trapped in Stone (Green Writers Press, 2026), a generous selection from each of the 3 sections of the book, “Fossilized Sunlight,” “Border Crossings,” & “Limpid Stone,” ending with a love poem to her husband, “I Heard the Sea’s Voice in Your Voice.” She also included some pieces of her translation project to bring the work of Ukrainian writers to the English-speaking world. You can see her reading on the Caffè Lena YouTube channel. Be patient, Natalya’s reading begins a little over 6 minutes in.

Then on to the open mic sign up sheet with the 1st reader David Graham with an unfinished poem from 2020, “Hard Winter.” Joe Caresello was new here at the Caffè Lena, & read “Immigrant Example,” & a piece apparently from his book, “I Know I Don’t Know.” Cathy Clarke read a seasonal piece “March,” then one for her brother & his wife, “The May Time.” Leslie Sittner is a frequent reader here, read “Wallowing in Sloth” for her dog, then a poem from a workshop, “Unventured Servitude.” Pat Curtis read “Alphabet Junk,” a funny alphabet poem in rhyme for her grandson.

We took a short break, then returned to the open mic with Carol Graser reading a poem, “That Winter,” from her new book Prayer for the Sorrowful Brain (Kelsay Books, 2025). 

Lancelot Barber said that this was his 1st time reading at an open mic & shared an intense screed titled incongruously “Love is Only the Real Thing We Got.” Peg Clarke’s 2 poems were seasonal observations, “A Waltz in the Wind” & “Unopened” about cardinals in her yard. David Goren read a poem about the hard Winter, “A Moon’s Moon.” Ian Singleton (who is Natalya Sukhonos’ husband) read a translation from the Russian by a poet whose name I didn’t get, “Cathedral Square in Odessa.”

Charlie Lapinski was another poet with season poems, “Crossing the Border” about the migration of butterflies (& people?), & “Predator” about an owl. I read my poem about a recent Amtrak trip from Philadelphia to Albany, at the William H. Gray III 30th St. Station, “The Sparrows of Amtrak.” Melissa Anderson, from the Café Euphoria Slam Team, read a love poem that she characterized as a “contrapuntal” that began “You were born in wildfire season…” 

Jay Rogoff, the Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs, read a political satire, “The Ballroom 2030” in which the thrift shop there is run by immigrants. A frequent reader here, Elaine Kenyon, said she is on a poem-a-day project based upon the word-of-the-day, read “An After Dark Return” responding to the word “eidolon,” then another, "Requiem as I Sleep.” Rodney Parrott has been responding with poetry to the Presidencies of Donald J. Trump for a long time now & read a piece in which the poet imagines himself running for President.

Emma Norris managed to squeeze in 3 short poems (& got away with it), “Knowing” about leaving a relationship, then a ghost poem “White Napkin,” & another relationship poem, “Pink.” Randee Renzi, who is part of the active poetry group Lucid Voices, read a political piece on the Epstein files, “Redactions,” then a prosy untitled piece on narcissists. Ian McCrae read a quirky poems with a long title, “Gas Station in Upstate New York Where I Went to Do My Taxes,” then one about a cigarette titled more simply “Poem Number 2.”  S.L. Maurice brought the evening to a close with 2 pieces from his book Vibrant Sounds, Colors in Motion (Deadman’s Press Ink, 2025), recited from memory, “Ariadne” & “What You See.”

This long-running (20+ years) series is now on the 4th Tuesday of the month, still at the historical Caffè Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY - featured poet at 7:00PM, followed by an open mic, $5.00, students free.

[Note: I apologize if I mis-spelled your name, I had no access to the sign-up sheet & relied on what I heard/interpreted for my notes. If you send me a correction via email I will revise the post. Likewise if I mis-heard the title of your poem, or got anything else wrong, please email me your correction.]

Poets at the Farm, March 22

It was not quite yet National Poetry Month & already a new poetry venue was poking thru, like the tulips in Washington Park. This was the first of a new series run by poet Avery Stempel (of Collar City Mushrooms) held on a Sunday afternoon at Indian Ladder Farms, either Altamont or Clarksville, in the hills outside Albany, NY. It was held in the bar with a generous selection of beers & ciders, informal & relaxed. 

Our Host, Avery, was the 1st to take the stage with a poem written this morning, “A New Vision,” on the potential of the New, then one of his older chant/rants, “Because You Have Opened.” 

I followed with the 2 related poems that I had read at the Third Thursday Poetry Night, “Angels,” inspired by the late Jayne Robbins (1945 - 2014), then my elegy to her, “A Poem for Ja(y)ne Robbins, for Daring Deluxe with Vincent.”

Mimi Moriarty didn’t have far to go to be here & began with a new poem, “The Hardy Birds of Winter,” mixing the seasonal birds with the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE agents; “Precious Light” is also a new poem, a morning poem; & “Good Friday,” a poem in 3 parts, mixing the Biblical story & getting ready for Easter.

David Gonsalves read 3 short poems, “Brother from Another Mother,” & “Silent Movie,” both characteristically enigmatic. 

Elaine Klein began with a funny childhood memory of a pet toad, in rhyme, “The Ballad of Worm Doom,” then a most appropriate piece for the times, “Speak truth to power…”

This new monthly series was off to a great start. Poets at the Farm takes place on the 4th Sunday of each month at the local landmark, Indian Ladder Farms, 342 Altamont Rd., Altamont, NY, -- bring some poems to read, & maybe do some shopping while you are there.

: An Evening of Music & Poetry for Peace & Justice, March 20

With poems & songs of peace & social justice at the Friends Meeting House on Madison Ave., Albany NY, organized by the Upper Hudson Peace Action, & co-sponsorship by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild & the Poetry Motel Foundation. 

The house was packed by long time & loyal members & friends of Upper Hudson Peace Action & I was honored to have been asked to be the MC for the evening. The celebration started & ended as well it should with music from the Solidarity Singers who have been performing rousing songs of social protest for decades throughout the Capital District. Tonight was no different, with the obligatory songs by Woody Guthrie, but also with an eclectic mix of songs from still-living musician activists. Although the ensemble has changed somewhat over the years, the Singers are still motivated by the belief that good social movements, like good lives, need good music.

The featured poet for the night was a great treasure of the poetry & arts scene in the Capital District, D. Colin, a multidisciplinary artist of Haitian descent whose creative practice spans poetry, visual art & theater. She has a background in English & Africana Studies & is a teaching artist & curator who creates & facilitates spaces for creativity, storytelling & healing. She is the author of Dreaming in Kreyol, a poetry collection, & two plays, as well as a number of publications & performances at venues both nationally & abroad. Her performance this night included readings from her book & other poems, even singing in her ancestral Kreyol.

After a break for light refreshments, the evening continued with an open mic of music & poetry performances  from the riches of the local art & activist community. The musicians included Chrys Ballurano, Mary Baker with Sheree Cammer (who also performed together with poetry), Mark Shaeffer (with Tom Lehrer’s humorous piece on Huntly/Brinkley), Melanie Pores (with Terri Roben, who also performed solo).

The poets included Sylvia Barnard, Tom Ellis, Edie Abrams (with John Lennon’s “Imagine”), Lex Bhagat, David Gonsalves, Fred Pfeiffer, Charlie Lapinski, Mike McGlynn & Elaine Klein.

These are tough times (some would say it has always been tough times) but, with the seasonal increase of light, we also need each other’s light carried by music & words. 

Keep at it.