Third Thursday Poetry Night, February 18

Back at the Social Justice Center for tonight’s featured poet Brian Dorn, & the customary open mic for poets, 11 on the list. But first, the night’s Muse, sadly more muses this year as the roster of gone poets grows faster than months so far. Karl Gluck was a poet who was a key figure in the early days of the poetry scene here in Albany, & he left us at the end of January. I read his poem from Open Mic: The Albany Anthology (Hudson Valley Writers Guild, 1994) “Untitled: for Kevin Factor & Mary Ann Murray.” Then on to the open mic.

First up was Alan Catlin with a low-art ekphrastic poem on “Robots” based on a card set of cartoon creatures, a deep comment on American culture. Philomena Moriarty brought a bunch of poems & settled on one about going back to Ireland with her father one December to a sheep farm on Brandon Bay, “On Being Irish.”

Lynn Dean was new here with the result of a poetry challenge from the third Tuesday night poetry group at the Colonie Town Library “Unlucky 13” (retired elephants).
Dave DeVries is also part of the same group & it was his first time here too & read a poem “Borders for Marauders” (about the lines between countries & the meaning of race & nationality).

Our featured poet was one of the most peripatetic of local poets, Brian Dorn, who has been a feature at a number of regional poetry venues (some more than once), but this is the first time I’ve been able to feature him here. He began with a look to “Back in the Day” in rhyme, of course, & on to read the 1st nine poems in his book, From My Poems to Yours (The Liver Versions). The next was “Words” on his “intriguing art.” Speaking of words he set up cards on the couch behind him with a jumble of letters that he displayed one-by-one after each poem for members of the audience to guess the word & win a copy of his book. His poem “My Impropriety” is an apology, then the anti-war poem “Out of Whack,” & a biography of Jesus in just 5 stanzas “Three Days” while “Plain to See” is a love poem about subtle beauty. At this point Karen Fabiane guessed the word to be “Omaha," but not because of Peyton Manning as was Brian’s thought, but because of a Moby Grape song! Then on to the poem titled “No Comment,” followed by “Broken” a comment on female pop stars who have a quick success the downfall. He finished with the auto-biographical “Luck.” As he does, Brian's reading flowed easily from one poem to another, in rhyme.

After a chatty break I started off the open mic with my new poem “The Water Planet,” 1st time read. 

This was also Cathy Abbott’s first time here & she read a short poem to Patti Smith recommending the poetry scene here. Joe Krausman’s poem was the musical & philosophical “Why Play the Tuba?” Karen Fabiane read from her Bright Hills book Dancing Bears the poem “2 Parts of the Wayward Poem.” At this point a fellow named Tim, who said he was a plumber, wandered in from the street to talk a bit about his work, his drinking, his “simple world.”

Carole Rossi made another appearance here, explained she is writing a poem each morning as she wakes up & read Dreaming Day 80 (today) titled “Rummaging,” becoming almost metaphysical with images from a flea market. Jan Farrell hadn’t been here in a while & read a poem about holding the hand of her child from her new book The Angels that Passed. The night’s last poet was Sally Rhoades who reprised her poem about her mother’s second wedding & her funeral “My Mother Used to Pray.”

Each third Thursday of the month we gather at 7:30PM at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY for a reading by a local, or regional, even a national poet & an open mic for the rest of us. Come read a poem.