Poetry + Prose, June 12

This was the last of this season's open mics here at the Arts Center in Troy, from a series that started in the Fall. We are just taking the summer off (July & August) off & will be back on September 11. Each month there has been a grand selection of writers (both prose & poetry) who seem to like the Sunday afternoon format, so you don't have to believe me (I'm one of the co-hosts along with Nancy Klepsch).  This month was no exception.

Some folks had a hard time getting here this month due to the Flag Day parade in Troy & I've heard that at least one writer had to turn around & go home because she couldn't find a way across the parade route. But Howard Kogan made it through, with a memoir about growing up in the '50s, "Black & White," then a true story of a real event at a reading in North Adams, MA, "Open Mic."

Marion Menna read from her chapbook, An Unknown Country (Finishing Line Press, 2009), 3 pieces that were family memoirs, "The Tapestry Chair," "Migration" (a prose poem without punctuation), & "Engrams." Mimi Moriarty likes to do what she calls "companion poems," today about her grandchildren, "Childrens' Chorus" & "Tap Dancing." Bob Sharkey began with a piece from his travels out West & on the Navaho Nation, "To the Monuments," then from his series of pieces set in Troy, the gruesome "The Body." David Wolcott's prose memoir was about following Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks with a chick on the railroad 40 years ago. Sally Rhoades began with a poem about her Turkish mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's, then a short mother & daughter scene from a play she wrote a number of years ago.

My co-host, Nancy Klepsch, read a moving memoir titled "Being There San Francisco 2004" about that city's experiment in gay marriage. Ron Drummond introduced what he read as "3 relatively short pieces;" the first a draft of a movie voice-over, the 2nd (or 2nd & 3rd) a dream sequence, first as the dream, then as a re-telling based on it; the final piece was from his critical writing on the works of William Shakespeare. I followed with my new poem from Cape Cod, "Imagining the Mews," then "Prophylactic" from my chapbook Poeming the Prompt. Carol Jewell read 2 poems she had just written today, both tender, emotional: "My Brother Was Brilliant," & "June 12, 2011 For my Brother Gone 3 Years Ago Today." Todd Fabozzi read 3 related pieces from his 2009 book of poems Crossroads, "Waiting," "The Mystic Road," & "Maybe."

This series has been (& will be) held at The Arts Center of the Capital Region on River St. in Troy, NY on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 2PM, free, & welcomes all writing genres.