Poets Speak Loud!, October 28

Another last Monday in McGeary's back-room, with our irrepressible host Mary Panza & busy & lovely wait-staff, Melissa. Before we got to our featured poet, first a bit of the open mic.


I ended up (again!) 1st on the list & in tribute to the late Lou Reed read my elegy to his former band-mate, Nico, "The End" then read the lyrics to Lou's classic tune that has haunted me through many loves, "Your Pale Blue Eyes." Brian Dorn was back to read a poem about regrets for losing a friend, "My Impropriety," then the environmental piece "The Ends of the Earth." Julie Lomoe confessed that, alas, she was not a "Chelsea girl," read her poem on depression, "11 Ways of Looking at November." Tess Lecuyer read 2 old poems, "Your Curses," & another on being a Druid for Halloween. Joe Krausman read a tour de force poem written without 2 syllable words, then "Alice" (& Nixon too!).

Adam Tedesco made his debut here last month & -- Poof! -- he's this month's featured poet. He began with poems about looking at his past -- a dream sequence about his father, his poems discursive, in the first person. "My Lazy Eye" (a pun perhaps?) was a pensive piece, then some short poems "How We Grow Oaks" & "The Waltz." I liked "The Lunatic Questions" & the lyrical relationship poem "We Soften." But "Athenor" was more self-consciously poetic with its allusions to alchemy. I missed the title an interesting piece about a vision of his grandmother in the condiment aisle of a Supermarket, & the music of the Doobie Brothers. He ended with a series of "how-to" poems: "How To See the Thing," "How To Sing Our Song" (for his wife), "How To Read Stone," & the hopeful "How To Love in a Degenerate Age." He explained at one point that he has been writing for some time but not sharing his work. I'm glad he has ventured out & begun to share his interesting poems.

Appropriately enough the next reader was a poetry virgin, Calley, with "To Coffee" & a poem for a friend "Tea." Lexington was back after a long absence with a Halloween love poem in rhyme.  Maxwell Ross must have liked it here last month because he came back, this time with a poem about hot Summer sex in equally over-heated language, "Warriors of the Night." Bob Sharkey cooled us off to end the night with "Morning Seaside Prayer" for the lost fishers & the Albany vignette, "The Dutch Girls."

This reading each month on the last Monday is presented by AlbanyPoets.com at McGeary's on Clinton Square, Albany, NY -- come & read.