Live from the Living Room, August 10

(a popular title, it seems) In the living room of the Pride Center of the Capital District, an intimate gathering of poets & listeners with our host Don Levy.

The featured poet was KC Orcutt, one of Metroland's "Best Poets" this year, in a rare reading, a Blogger (keepalbanyboring.com) & student. She started off reading from her smart phone, then on to paper, beginning with a wrong-number poem, one she read at WordFest, "Mistaken," then "The Good-Bye Letter to My Typewriter." Then on to the poem "Formative Year," & one about a sandwich. Switching to paper, she read a group of untitled poems from her notebooks, often to "you" (or maybe those first lines were titles?). Short, fast poems referencing relationships, food & social networking. The way to win any of the Metroland's Best Of categories is to get the most votes & one way to do that is to have a Blog & a big fan base to vote for you. The poems will come at any time.

I had a new poem in what is becoming a series on suburban life, "Coyote 3," then the short poem "Contemplatio Mortis." Jill Crammond's first poem was "a little bit new" looking back to the wedding, marriage, then in honor to her old cat, "Why I Have Abandoned Motherhood in Hopes of Running a Brothel & Being Called Madam" (her titles could be poems in themselves). Carolee Sherwood read from her iPad (continuing the technology use) her Twitter poem, "I Think I'll Go Make a Video about Ivan the Terrible" (which Sergei Eisentein did when they were called "films"), then a dream poem, "Tangle."  Bob Sharkey read his own poem set in Portland, Maine, "Monument Square," then "The Horse" (for a survivor of Hiroshima) by our new poet laureate, Philip Levine. Avery (Stempel) will be next month's featured poet here, & read 2 poems about writing poems, one written today, "Unwritten Poems Scars Very Deep," then "My Thoughts Are Scattered."

 Nigel Greene's poem was a dream, "Spellbound," then "Keep Me in Your Peripheral." Don Levy read "Sitting This One Out," about learning square-dancing in school, then the short piece, "The Fine Art of Conversation." Todd Fabozzi was a last minute addition with a short piece by Nicanor Parra, then his own poem about nursing homes & death, "Time."

This reading, an open mic with a featured poet, takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the Pride Center, 332 Hudson Ave., Albany, 7:30PM, cozy & straight-friendly.