Poems -- & musings on the Albany (NY) poetry scene.
"It's not the Truth, but it's pretty darn close."
October 23, 2014
Third Thursday Poetry Night, October 16
It seems the fabled tour bus was unable to find a parking space, but a few poets arrived by city bus, by car, & by foot. & with a short sign-up poets were even allowed to read 2 poems, & a few did.
I invoked the Muse by reading a poem from his memoir, Courage, Coward, Courage!! Steps Along the Way, by activist/union organizer Ed Bloch, who left us in August; Ed had read once here in July 2010.
First up to the mic was Alan Catlin with a couple poems, or rather 1 poem in 2 parts “Twilight of the Gods” about the hell of war, then part 2 about the grim aftermath for the warriors. Jamey Stevenson had spent some time working in Scotland, read “Dundee Dismantled” then “Pulp” an angst-ridden rhyme.
BK was a new face & voice & read poems on the evening’s continuing theme of war, the first poem about being a refugee learning English “ESL Lesson,” then read a “dirty poem” about learning about sex as a youth. Sylvia Barnard had only brought one poem, just written today, about her late mother, “Learning Greek” & referencing Homer’s Odyssey. It’s getting too dark to play golf in the evening so Anthony Bernini stopped by to read a poem about love “Letters of Young Lady Bird & Lyndon” based on early letters between President Johnson & his future wife. I ended the open mic with a new poem, that I dedicated to the memory of Ed Bloch, “A.J. Muste.”
Tonight’s featured poet, Elaine Cohen, is the author of the biography, Unfinished Dream: The Musical World of Red Callender & of a poetry chapbook, Solita: A Sojourn in Mexico, which she read from. “Journeying,” the first poem in the book, is about a bus trip to Oaxaca, the trip continuing with “Land of Shining Clouds.” “La Noche De Los Rabanos” (The Night of the Radishes) continues the description & her broken heart. “Mornings” is in the grand tradition of morning songs, then “Uprising” was on the night’s theme of war, then the heat of May in “Monte Alban,” & the charming title poem “Solita” (which is read to a jazz orchestra on Alan Chan’s CD Shrimp Tale). Then on to a manuscript “Snapshots from a Family Album,” a piece about her grandmother’s funeral “First Loss,” a biography of her mother “Snapshots of Miriam 1910 - 2005,” going through her mother’s things with her sister “Legacy,” & ending with a whirling poem from a workshop “A Stranger in the Mirror.” Elaine & I exchanged poems & letters many, many years ago & I’m pleased that we have met again & again exchange poems.
The Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center takes place on the third Thursday of each month, with a featured poet & an open mic before & after the feature — 7:00PM sign-up, 7:30PM start, $3.00 donation.
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