Poets Speak Loud! September 28

Last Monday again, at the Lark Tavern with Mary Panza our host.

I read my re-write of a AAA listing, "The Spa" & the jazz/nature poem, "Respect." Josh McIntyre hung around after work to join us & read "The Radio" & "The Bar at the Heartbreak Hotel." Julie Lomoe gave us more information than we needed about the state of her armpits, then read her Blog about writing a poem about her morning glories (check it out).

Dan Stalter continued the 21st Century tech by reading from his Blackberry about an intense experience on a mattress, then an intro to a book he never wrote, "The Dreamer's Parasite." It was a thrill to see Carolee Sherwood here for her first time & to hear "Impossible to Tell the Years Apart" (on love), then the outrageous suburban housewife porn fantasy about the pizza delivery guy, rhyming on sex noises -- next time join in.

I've been a fan of the poetry of Alifair Skebe since I first heard her perform in the old Jawbone series & I've included her in Poets in the Park series & the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center. She was in different form tonight with recent poems of childhood, progressing more or less chronologically from age 3, "Dancing in the Rain," to using her mother's lipstick in the car ("Red"), getting hit by "The Swing," "The Goose Girl," religion & girlhood in "Bloody Mary," 2 poems about her Dad & fear & punning on "Bible Belt," falling out of trees & ballet ("How Not to be Seen"), ending with the cut-up of "Desire" (after Sol Le Witt). A wonderful poet I love hearing however rarely.

Rich Tomasulo was back again with "I Remember Myself Remembering" then a re-write of the Mass, "The Fat Cat's Toast." A new voice, announced simply as "Gardner" did a sexy piece on "The Waterbed," the closest thing to a love poem he has written, so he said -- sexy & fun. Speaking of which, Jill Wickham was also a first timer here, with funny, playful poems from being a Mom, "Mother as a Pirate or Dead Bells Tell No Tales" & "Death of a Pirate" which was not sad at all.

Christy came over with Gardner (don't they have last names in Vermont?) & did a cover of a song from memory with nary a slip, accompanying herself with only one string on her guitar; it was quite a performance. Brian ended the night with what he described as an excerpt from a longer piece, this about a guy in a train station going home to a funeral discussing sunglasses. You never know what you are going to hear at an open mic.

Show up on the last Monday of any month at Tess' Lark Tavern on Madison Ave. in Albany around 7:30, have some dinner, catch some poetry, say hi to Nicole, our ever-so-pleasant-&-lovely waitress. Read a poem.