Albany Poets Presents: No Gimmick Open Mic, October 9

I'd missed the first of this new series last month so made a point of getting here to check this out, in one of my favorite venues, the UAG Gallery on Lark St. The host, of course, was Mary Panza.

I signed up first & read with a nod to Halloween, "Zombie Gourd," then the sexy "The Beach" & "In the Oval Mirror." Cynthia Solywoda did a poem in her made-up language, followed by the translation; then "Sweet Jane's Descent" a song for a prostitute with the great line, "it's never easy being easy;" & ended with a piece for an Iranian girl killed by mistake.

"Murrow" is Keith Spencer on guitar backing up Thom Francis' poems. Thom faced a new day, a new blank page, then a poem to an angel with her wings tucked away. Don Levy had a new poem written last night for this new series, "You Have to Have a Gimmick," addressed to politicians & poets; "Getting Older by the Minute" on his up-coming birthday, & the Partridge Family tribute(?), "If the School Bus is a Rockin' Don't Come a-Knockin'." Chris Borzek has come to a few open mics & his poems are plagued by awkward meters, goofy rhymes ("clarity/parity"), & forced metaphors (a rose in a desert in the Winter?). But he is bold in trying his work out & just needs to read some poets writing in the last 50 years or so, & listen to what others at the open mics are reading -- & his own inner voice which I'm sure doesn't talk like that.

Michael Purcell likes to confront political & social themes in his meanderings, like his "Alternative Reality TV" with made up sponsors, or "Heroes," with the occasional appearance of God in a Mother's Day card. Bob Sharkey is one of the local poets that younger scribes need to listen to; tonight he tried out flash-fiction in "Greatest Miser Ever Was," then read again "All for the Masses," which improves with each hearing, & one about visiting an old friend in the country, "Going Up."

This is a relaxed, casual new series, a good way to start your 2nd Friday evening each month, still plenty of time to catch some music elsewhere or lurk the pick-up scene, at the UAG Gallery, Lark St., Albany, NY.