Poetry + Prose: 2nd Sunday @ 2, June 9

A day of parades, the Pride Parade in Albany, & the Flag Day Parade in Troy where this reading happened in spite of it all. Nancy Klepsch & me, DWx, the hosts, readers & listeners.

I was first up with a clutch of new poems, the first perhaps goes on, "Counting Moons" then "Delete this Poem" (on censorship) & a sound experiment, "My Name." Brian Dorn has a distinctive style in writing & reading his poems & read a bunch of favorites, "Playing for Keeps," "Unglued" ("sort of a love poem," he said), a Sunday poem "3 Days," & "Back in the Day." Mike Connor began with a prose memoir from high school days, "The 32-coup" then the emotional tattoo portrait "Inner Ink." David Wolcott has been taking a class here at the Arts Center on performing written work so recited his piece he's read elsewhere about a drug experience "The Doors of Flagstaff." Tim Verhagen added to the his collection of family tales with a piece about his father (for Father's Day?) who said, famously, "I never loved my kids."

Elizag was fresh from her assault on Saratoga Springs last night, with a couple of short (haiku?) poems, then the slam poem she couldn't finish last night, "Are You Really Working Class?" Howard Kogan outdid himself today in just 2 poems, "I Remember America" with memories growing up in a post-WW II dream/nightmare, then the funny piece riffing off on the latest (or any) catalog from the Omega Institute. Co-host Nancy Klepsch read a piece about schools & gun control.

Lorraine Grund finally showed up here & introduced her new collection of poems Permission to Speak, the proceeds of the sale of which go for child abuse prevention, with a reading of the title poem, then a tender, ekphrastic love poem "Imprint." Ron Drummond was back from a trip to the left coast for a reading of his fiction/essay (that he has tried out here first on the 2nd Sunday) at KADIST in San Francisco at the beginning of May, as part of the launch of the art magazine White Fungus; for us he read a letter about ogling chicks at a cafe.

This series is taking a break for Summer (just like school) & will resume on the 2nd Sunday of September at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy NY, an open mic for writers of prose & poetry. Bring something you've written to read.