2nd Sunday @ 2, May 10

Mothers Day in Troy but there were still a dozen writers, even some mothers, here to read, poetry or prose, with the dual hosts Nancy Klepsch & me, Dan Wilcox.

& I was up first with Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 “Mother’s Day Proclamation”, then my own short poem about a homeless woman in Washington Park “Whose Mother is That?” Peggy LeGee was next with a tribute piece, on death & eating, “Ode to My Grandmother on Mothers Day.” Bob Sharkey read an extended excerpt from his manuscript-in-progress “Sustenance” about a made-up city populated by mostly young people, in this section pondering the Move bombing in Philly & politics. Howard Kogan began with his poem “Missing My Mother,” then on to others work, a poem by Faith Shearin “Spelling Bee,” & the epilogue to Moby Dick.

Cathy Abbott read a couple of short, poignant pieces, one about understanding per mother.  Alane Hohenberg was new here, read a prose narrative about having lunch with her sister in the Moonshine Gulch Saloon, in Rochford, South Dakota.

Karen Fabiane’s “Junkie Pathetique” was a cynical conversation set in a bar, & then she read “But Now Gentle Folk Come.” My co-host Nancy Klepsch read from the 1994 collection Open Mic: the Albany Anthology her poem “Planting” then a recent piece from her workshop with Bernadette Mayer, the insult poem “The Equal Opportunity Insult Poem.”

Joe Krausman’s poem “Buddha Dreams” was new & was about that interval between deaths we call “life,” then a little piece on the circles of the season, & a poem about all the “could’ves but didn’ts” “Coming of Age.” William Robert Foltin was brief with his poems but long with his rambling, ending with a silly rhyme “Macho Man.”

Jay Renzi read a portrait of a place (just written today) “The Pastures,” then another poem “Sundial.” Druis Beasley stepped away from the mic to give praise to Mothers, who give life, then some pieces from long manuscript she has been working on for a long time, “Diatribe on Love,” “Dormant Seed” (of love), & the last piece in the manuscript “The Smile of Bright.”

This open mic for poetry & prose takes place on most 2nd Sundays, except for July & August, at the Arts Center of the Capital Region on River St. in Troy, NY at 2PM. It’s free!