2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose Open Mic, January 11

The first of 2015, back with my co-host, Nancy Klepsch in the Black Box Theater, named after a famous crooked politician. Brian Dorn got us off on the right foot with 2 love poems, “Sublimely Connected” & the list poem to his Muse “Her Attributes.” Howard Kogan honored our colleague, Ron Drummond, who now lives in Ithaca, by reading Ron’s version of a translation of part of “Thunder, Perfect Mind,” one of my favorite texts in the Nag Hammadi library. Cathy Abbott read an amusing late seasonal piece about her daughter & mistletoe, then read from a flyer she found about the value of shared readings that she said reminded her of this event.

Sandra Rouse said her writings are filled with “after 9/11 emotions,” & read about traveling to see her daughter (“Crossing Providence River”) & the sad “Melody of Loss.” I followed with a poem from this Fall, touching on the past & on Halloween, “The Move.” The poet better known as Jay Renzi signed up today as Joseph D. Renzi & read a poem “Pestilence, Witchcraft & Slavery” from a new book, the final in a trilogy, about to be published, then an excerpt from a draft of an in-progress “post-apocalyptic epic.” Elizabeth Gordon also read from a draft of a poem, this about her Xmas tree, “2 Weeks after Christmas,” then read W.B. Yeats' “The Lake Isle of Innissfree.”

My co-host Nancy Klepsch read a poem about “un-coupling” (as she called it) “Non Repo Blues,” & a chant-like love poem “Shopping for a Goddess.” Adam Tedesco showed up with his young son (who said later that he was not writing poetry but likes going to readings with his Dad) read a poem about him “Nick Poops with the Door Open,” then a list poem “How to Make a Million Dollars by Always Telling the Truth.” Jamey Stevenson apologized for reading 2 break-up poems, said he had a 3rd that was more upbeat but respected the 2-poem limit; the poems he read were “Billboard in 3 Sections” & one he said was never read out before “Plan B.”

2nd Sunday @ 2 is held at just that in the Arts Center on River St. in Troy — 2 poems or no-more-than 5 minutes of prose — Free!