Metroland’s Reader’s Poll Best Local Poet 2015

I was out of town when the results of Metroland’s Reader Poll was announced & the tokens given out*.  Congratulations to Brian Dorn, Mary Panza, Jay Renzi & Elizabeth Gordon, all poets who read out regularly in the local poetry scene.

Usually this category attracts only a small number of votes (one only needs 3 votes to win 1st place, 2 votes for 2nd & 1 vote for 3rd), but there must have been a huge turnout this year. Mary Panza comes from big Italian family & knows everyone in South Troy, as well as has having many customers/clients who conceivably would vote for her (& I note that she also ended up in the category “Best Local Celebrity You’d Like to Date”). In order to beat her votes Brian Dorn must’ve gotten everyone in Saratoga County to vote for him, & maybe he has big family too. In addition I know personally that a number of votes were cast for poets RM Engelhardt & for Gary Murrow, both of whom have been on the “Best Local Poet” list in past years (I mean if you can’t figure out how to stuff the ballot box you haven’t lived in Albany long enough yet). How many other local poets just didn’t make the cut? We’ll never know.

Metroland states that “more than 3,500 readers returned our print and online surveys” so I guess you can say that after all these years Metroland is finally catching on.

Congratulations to all the winners in all the categories, from Best Pizza, to Best Punk Band, to Best Poet. Keep at it. I hear that next year Metroland is doubling the prizes.


* As my father said about awards, “That & a token will get you on the bus.”