Live from the Living Room, March 11

Down in the Garden Room of the Pride Center Don Levy was upset that his featured poet had cancelled at the last minute, so it ended up being a small intimate group, just Don, Jessica Rae who had walked over, & me. Don suggested we do a “round robin” & we even traded comments between poems.

Don Levy's hat & poems

Jessica was first with what she called “a therapy rant” titled “It’s Permanent” & the repeating lines “you’re fucked up…” Don recounted the horrors of high school gym class in his poem “Climbing the Rope.” I followed with the up-to-date “What I Found at the Bust Stop When the Snowbank Melted.”

Back to Jessica with more therapy, “Disbelief.” Don’s poem was from May 2014, “Drunk College Kid on Quail.” & I read from my new chapbook, Coyote, the poems “Coyote 2.”

For the final round, Jessica couldn’t decide what she should read so handed me her folder of poems & I picked one for her, “From My Window,” a nice urban piece. Don’s last poem was based on pictures on Instagram, a wonderful bit of urban fantasizing on the bus, “Hot Dudes Reading.” I ended with my poem “Prophylactic” from the chapbook Poeming the Prompt.

It doesn’t matter how many, or who shows up, Live from the Living Room is about sharing poetry, & a pleasant time together, each 2nd Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM, at the Pride Center, 332 Hudson Ave., Albany, NY. Join us for an open mic with, usually, a featured poet.