Poets Speak Loud!, December 28

Our host, Mary Panza, said she was losing her voice, but she managed to introduce all 9 poets, & was still talking afterwards when I left, such resilience.

I read my remembrance of a "bottom-less" bar, "Summer in California," then the fantasy ditty, "The Hippy Dress." Jill Crammond Wickham read the poem she didn't bring to the Season's Reading event last week, "June Cleaver Makes Much of Winter," then the New Year litany, "Resolved to Be More Like a Crow."

Carolee Sherwood's long titles are a challenge to my note-taking, a challenge I'm not always up to, like "The Magician Offers a Lame Apology to His Assistant..." (with the traditional rabbit & a woman cut in half), & the Wizard of Oz-inspired "A Thief Steals Metaphors for Frank Baum..." -- there was more to both titles. Cheryl A. Rice's titles were much simpler, "Ice Fishing" & "In Defense of Horses." I'd read with Guy Reed earlier this year at the Howland Center down in Beacon & it was great he made it up here tonight to read a poem about reading Jack Gilbert's work, "Old Mountain," the driving poem "Shadows."


RM Engelhardt was up with a Biblical poem about the 4, sorry, 3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, then a boxing match between The Poet & the Serpent.  Sylvia Barnard read "Poem for My 72nd Birthday" (on Dec. 11) that told the story of her birth.

Avery was back with his white-boy hip-hop, "My Spoken Word" & "Continuous Speculation." Shannon Shoemaker read her poem "Brought Low" here last month, but read it again tonight because her best friend was here, then read a poem she was scribbling at her table just now, about remembering January in Michigan 20 years later.

So, check it out every last Monday at the Lark Tavern on Madison Ave. in Albany (they're on Facebook too) -- see the calendar on AlbanyPoets.com for complete info.