2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose Open Mic, February 8

What to do on a cold & snowy Sunday afternoon? Nothing warmer than poetry among friends at the Arts Center in Troy, Nancy Klepsch & I are the hosts.

& it was great to start off with a new face & voice, James Mitchell who began with a poem about a friend’s struggle with addiction, “Void,” then read “Oh that Feeling” about looking at a beautiful woman. I followed with 2 new poems, “Birthday Poem 2015” & “McDonalds with Love.”

Harvey Havel read a passage riffing on the rivers of East Pakistan from his novel The Orphan of Mecca, book 1 of a trilogy. My co-host Nancy Klepsch confessed that she loves the rapper Biggy & read her paean to his work, then a workshop exercise, “Worlds Tornado,” playing with the sounds of letters.  William Robert Foltin read 2 poems for Valentines Day, a piece on oral sex “Slow Dancing,” then a poem on cheap champagne & love “Caricature.” Jos. D. Renzi (that was the way he signed the sheet) read a ritual rhyme “Blessing the Virgin Oil,” then “Come Night” from his new collection Remembering the Smoke (by "Jos. D. Renzi").

Tim Verhaegen read another of his humorous & touching essays, this one about puberty & being gay, “Jimmy’s Transformation.” Karen Fabiane read from her book Seeing You Again the poem “Orphan,” filled with images of the beach & shore birds, then the “somewhat new” poem about a couple separating “Real Gone.” Sally Rhoades read “On a Night with a Poet” in multiple parts, celebrating herself, memories of her father, based on reading the poems of Maurice Kenny.

Come join us the the 2nd Sunday of each month at 2:00PM, bring poems, prose to read, at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY — Free!