Troy Poetry Mission, March 29

I’d been here at this open mic back in the Fall for the first in the series, but weather & life intervened, until Troy began to thaw out. I got to O’Brien’s on 3rd Street early for a drink & dinner at the bar but that wasn’t necessary because even by 7:30, the reputed start time, the host, R.M. Engelhardt wasn’t even there. Why not make the start time 8:00 (we didn’t actually start until about 10 minutes after 8)?

The reading was in O’Brien’s back room, a large, open space that may have been a ballroom at one time, but no amp, no music stand, not even a chalk mark on the floor, pure Rob. Speaking of whom, he began with a haiku from 1991, “Percy Sledge Was Right.” I was up next with a selection from my new chapbook, Inauguration Raga, then #12 from my continuing series of true stories from the Trump era, “What Makes America Great.”

James Duncan is the editor of Hobo Camp Review, & will be the featured poet next Month; he read a piece about confronting the medical industry, “Is This Really Necessary?” I had seen Poetik read previously at The Low Beat in Albany at the Nitty Gritty Slam, tonight she read 2 pieces, “Relations” about getting to know men & herself, then “Poem to My Password.” Ainsley read 2 untitled poems, both about lovers, the first about the scents & stains a lover leaves behind, then another about picking lovers like math problems.

Tonight’s featured poet was the performer Liv McKee who began with a new piece about the stink of life & how “we are the sweat of the day,” then on to a welcoming poem with a bit of audience participation at the beginning. A poem based on a visit to Israel was full of the contradictions of Jewish heritage with support for the Palestinian people. Other poems included short pieces from her phone, slam-style performances of screed against a rapist, another to a hippie guru bullshit artist, & her last piece titled “Learning to Dance in 2-Part Harmony” performed without her boots, on the exploitation of dancers with the creation of “perfect” bodies. While she performs her longer pieces in the stylized manner of Slam, her poems have real substance, both political & personal which set them above the more common clichéd Slam performances.

Following a short beer break, Rob was back with 3 of his own poems, one invoking the crucifiction of Jesus “I Was Once Dead Too,” then 2 for his wife “Murmur” & “Off a Bottle of Wine.” Thérèse Broderick read “Errand with Strangers” about helping someone with her groceries. Karen Fabiane also read poems she had read Monday night (which is helpful for me to get through the complexities of a poem) “Even Without Grace” & “Peeling” that this time I heard as another of her “conversation” poems. Ainsley was back up with an encore, a poem about drinking with a friend with a drinking problem.

The Troy Poetry Mission is held on the last Wednesday of the month at O’Brien’s Public House, 43 3rd St. in Troy (of course), NY — 7:30PM (but if you believe that, I have an Easter Bunny that will bring you a basket of candy & eggs).

Poets Speak Loud!, March 27

This was a record-setting night with the most poets ever signed up for the open mic, according to host & ring-mistress Mary Panza, 21 at my count, not counting the 3 poets who read as the Reality Beach feature. Indeed it was a long night, with some readers having no idea of limits, of the old vaudeville rule axiom to “leave them wanting for more.” In any event, it was also an example of the variety of creative writers that live & write in Capital District.

First up on the open mic list was a stalwart of the open mics, Joe Krausman, who began with a poem about a summer job as a student “Riding Shotgun for Wells Fargo,” then a bit of apartment life “My Neighbor’s Parrot.” Carol Graser is the host of the open mic on the 1st Wednesday of each month at Caffè Lena & read 2 poems, “Health Insurance Addresses Her Supplents, then the chant-like "What Child Tuesday."  Mark O'Brien said he had read “It is In the Shelter of Each Other that People Live” a long title for an proportionally long poem, the last time he was here, then a Haibun from his Blog.

Nancy Dunlop described her first poem as “a real bummer” trying to show what a flashback from PTSD is like “Moving Picture Show,” then a less heavy piece based on a Polaroid photo from her youth “What the Sand Cannot Know.” Tess Lecuyer celebrated the Winter sounds in “Ice Boom Lake Jazz,” then to a poem about “Spring Trees.” I read 2 poems from my new, continuing series “What Makes America Great” (True Stories of the Trump Era) #87 & #102. Alan Casline read just one poem, a herald of Spring “With a New Crescent Moon.” Dawn Marar read a piece about Robert Mapplethorpe “Still Life.” Frank Robinson looked to the past “When I Was a Kid America Was Like Africa.”

The feature tonight was the poetry journal Reality Beach with Editor/Founder Adam Tedesco serving as host. First of the readers was Michael Peters, who responded to Julie Lomoe’s crank that she couldn’t hear him by moving closer to her, which was perhaps better than any of his poems. Then he fiddled with his smart phone to bring up a recording of the Rosary to accompany his reading. He read from a series titled “Oh Beautiful Death” a long selection of hallucinogenic pieces, like watching a David Cronenberg movie — post-apocalyptic, often bombastic & filled with dystopian pop images. My favorite phrase was “like Mother Jones on the half-shell,” mixing Botticelli, Thomas Pynchon & progressive news magazines.

The second batter for Reality Beach was Kenyatta J.P. Garcia. He read a seemingly unending string of untitled pieces from a spiral notebook that seemed to be attempts at avoiding meaning, but somehow some modicum of sense kept creeping back into his jottings. Just when you thought it was over, he went into his last poem, an anaphoric piece with the phrase “I blame it on the thaw…” that went nearly as long as the rest of his reading. If only he had just read that. I wrote it off as practice for the upcoming Readings Against the End of the World.

Editor-in-Chief Adam Tedesco read last, from the floor no less, where he had dumped his poems, where he began by imagining grandmas (that Mary picked up on for the running theme for the rest of the night). Adam also played music from his poem, different musical pieces for different poems, to accompany what he read. You can check out Reality Beach online.

Thérèse Broderick read a poem inspired by shopping at her neighborhood Market 32, a cross-cultural “Errands with Strangers.”

A new face & voice, Garrett McCluskey had a string of very short poems, which engendered a discussion on the bending of the rules with Mary; the poems were aphoristic plays on words & rhymes. When Sylvia Barnard attempted to get up to read, Garrett was kind enough to help her to her feet, which Mary couldn’t let go of for the rest of the night, but he was a good sport with all the teasing about him liking older women; Sylvia’s “Lisbon” was about having a cold in Portugal, & her second poem was for a friend who had died recently.

Another new face, a first-timer everywhere, Danielle LaRose, read a pleasing poem “Sheep in the Storm.” Carrie Czwakiel began with a poem just written at work & tired, then to a ghost story, “The Bridge,” that she began when she was 17 years old & finished recently at 30. Karen Fabiane tried out 2 new poems, “Even Without Grace” & “Peeling” incorporating Debussy’s tone poem La Mer, fellow poets & the Quran. Julie Lomoe read 2 pieces that basically ran together (one would have sufficed) about her obsession with online jigsaw puzzles (who knew?). Her partner, Rob Smith, followed with a the beginning of a para-normal novella about Anders the Ghost invading a host.

Sally Rhoades began with a New York City based poem “Winter Still Holding On,” then another place-based poem, this in far-Upstate New York & her Native heritage “Quiet in My Thoughts.” Doug Rothschild made a rare appearance at a community open mic to take off his shirt for the drive-by joke “Thursday’s Poem.”

Avery lived up to his reputation by gracing us with a happy dance to his just-written poem to Tess’ backroom where we all were just now. Jim helped break the record for open mic readers with 2 poems on the death of his father.

Will they do it again? Show up on the last Monday of the month at McGeary’s Irish Bar on Sheridan Square, in Albany, near Melville’s boyhood home, with a poem or 2 — details at AlbanyPoets.com.

Community of Writers, March 26

Community of Writers is a periodic reading series sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild to showcase the talents of the diverse writing community of the Capital Region. This reading was held in the 2nd floor Community Room of the Albany Public Library, Washington Ave. Branch (full disclosure: I organized & was the host of this particular reading). Today’s reading included a novelist, Tom Swyers; a poet, Nancy Klepsch; & a journalist, Steve Barnes.

Tom Swyers is the author of Saving Babe Ruth, which was the 2015 recipient of two Benjamin Franklin Book Awards: first place for “Best First Book, Fiction” & second place for “Best Popular Fiction,” & the recently released The Killdeer Connection. He began by talking about the creation of the cover for The Killdeer Connection through public comment, & on the writing of a “legal thriller” as well as its marketing in today’s highly competitive world of fiction. His new novel is of particular interest to readers in the Albany area because of its plot’s connection to the oil fields of North Dakota & the “bomb trains” that take the oil into Albany. Interested readers can get a free download of the novel by going to https://hyperurl.co/GetBookFree.

Nancy Klepsch is a long-time Capital Region activist, poet & teacher, now living in Troy, NY. She is the co-host (with me) of 2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, at the Arts Center in Troy. She began with her poem “Before You Know Gratitude” inspired by a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, then to a spirited performance of a tribute to Albany poet Tom Nattell. Her reading included a number of poems published in poetry journals, including Up The River (“A Queer Horse”), Barzakh, Oberon Review, & Sinister Wisdom. Her poems could be political as with “Great Again,” or loving as in “The Invisible Lesbian.” She ended with another tribute to a gone friend, “Crispy Kreme” full of dreams, death & laughter.

Steve Barnes  is a much-read columnist & reporter for the Albany Times Union whose Table Hopping Blog draws more than 400,000 readers a month. This afternoon he shared a number of columns/Blogs from the past to highlight the variety of the work he has done, & to serve as springboards into entertaining discussions about food, rock music & how reviews get written so quickly. He began with a glowing review from 1999 of a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, then showed how he could just as entertainingly write a scathing negative review, this of a Japanese restaurant in Albany. Another funny piece was about the NYS Assembly’s attempt to ban added salt in restaurants. A piece on the death of singer John Denver turned into autobiography, & one on rock star Meat Loaf had the audience in stitches. He ended with a tender piece on planning holiday meals with his widowed mother, both funny & tearful.

It is because there are so many talented writers, in all genres, here in New York’s Capital Region that the Hudson Valley Writers Guild can offer such programs. The Hudson Valley Writers Guild fosters an active community of writers and readers by encouraging the development of local authors and providing opportunities for them to share their talents with local audiences.  For more information about the Guild, & to support by joining visit the Guild’s website.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, March 16, 2017

Albany was under a “Snow Emergency” which meant parking was restricted to the odd-numbered side of the street, perfect for the Social Justice Center at 33 Central Ave., but that meant ALL the cars were on that side of the street. The tour bus of poetry enthusiasts never made it, but there were plenty of others to hear Dawn Marar & to read in the open mic. But first I invoked the Muse of the spirit of the season with an old Irish poem, “Fair Cassiday.”

Joe Krausman read a poem he recently found in his files, “Trapped Without Intermission,” about an uncomfortable night at the theater. Alan Casline announced that the first of the season’s readings at the Pinehollow Arboretum will be on the first Friday in April, then read some sections from “Ottawa City Blues,” descriptive pieces written in March a couple years ago. Mark O’Brien was already in his (green) uniform for tomorrow, read a haibun not yet on his Blog, “A Helderberg Journey.” Faith Green came to support her friend Dawn, read a work-in-progress, the anaphoric list poem “I Wonder.”

Our featured poet tonight, Dawn Marar, has been in the area for years, but, alas, does not read out frequently enough. Tonight, we got to hear a number of her intriguing, engaged poems. She began with a poem titled “Snowomen” with a nod to Wallace Stevens, thinking of Aleppo & birches. “New York Agora” was about the 9/11 memorial in NYC, then to a short, political piece “A-E-I-O-U.” On to a Summer poem, a day in the life of a writer preparing a manuscript, studying Arabic, dreams, & the everyday, “Heavenly Bodies.” Dawn also wrote a haibun, based on a photo on Mark’s Blog, titled “Cross Border,” written after she returned from the January Women’s March, playing on the text ot “America the Beautiful.” Next, a descriptive poem written the day before the election in San Francisco about the wild parrots, & more. She ended with a poem in her invented form, the American pronghorn, a variation on the ghazal, autobiographical, political, looking back to the Reagan era, & to the current election “Endgame.”

After a break, I read a poem from my new series “What Makes America Great” this #14, all true stories.

By far the youngest poet here tonight was Samuel Weinstein who read from his smart-phone a rhyming fantasy of an encounter on the street. Alifair Skebe read from her manuscript “Thanatos & Psyche” a new poem for the coming Spring season “Psyche Meets Orpheus in the Underworld.” Our last poet for the night was Nancy Dunlop with a quirky poem “I Took the Sign Down,” another poem tinged with the politics of the time.

So all the wimps out there who didn’t come tonight missed a wonderful group of open mic poets & the fabulous featured poem Dawn Marar. But we will be back as the snow melts, each third Thursday at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany at 7:30 — your $3.00 (or more!) donation helps pay the featured poet, supports other poetry events, & the work of the Social Justice Center. Please join us & read.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, March 12

Back at the Arts Center in Troy, but upstairs today & a full house, with co-host Nancy Klepsch.

Howard Kogan started us off with his poem “King Kong” a memory of the movie when he was young, & a poem “Talking at the End of Time” in an assisted-living place. I was next & read selections from Inauguration Raga (A.P.D., 2017).

Peggy LeGee was in her “cat-mode” to promote her new graphic arts chapbook, Moochie the Dumpster Kat (#1) (with art & lettering by Raymond Lowell), read “Death of a Very Fast Cat” & from the chapbook. Dave DeVries’ first poem, in rhyme, was titled “Crossing the Rubicon” then a series of random thoughts “My Peculiar Perceptions.” For this week’s St. Paddy’s Day Mike Conner read a poem by Seamus Heaney, then another by an Irish friend Brian Dodds “In Mullen’s Field.”

Harvey Havel read a short piece of prose fiction about an athlete facing racism on a school team. Cathy Abbott was quick, with a political haiku, then a selection from a book by a cousin. Bob Sharkey read a real-life story, “The Pipeline,” about refugees from South America trying to get into Canada & stranded in Plattsburgh.

Zan Strumfeld was the first of the new faces/voices here today & she read a moving prose piece about a boyfriend & finding a lump on his neck. Dan Curley’s poem “Cocooned” was for his daughter, then & now, while his 2nd poem encouraged us to “Make a Culture of Laughing.” Co-host Nancy Klepsch read a funny piece about Garrison Keilor, or rather about thinking about him, then a political piece for the time. Kate Laity’s flash fiction was titled “Spirits in the Night.”

Another new face, Michael Lopez, read a couple poems of “Faith,” the first descriptions of street people “What Ails Them,” then one about the “Shroud of Turin.” Karen Fabiane read 2 new poems in her familiar, oblique style, “Some Other People,” & “Even Without Grace.” Jil Hanifan’s long poem “St. Christopher’s School Bus” was full of glittering descriptions of the drivers & passengers. Joe Krausman’s poem “Limit” included a quote from the I Ching, & his 2nd poem was on being alone. R.M. Engelhardt arrived late once again to read a profoundly dark “America Sighs,” then a brighter poem for his wife, “Murmur.”

Easy to remember, 2nd Sunday @ 2, is at the Arts Center on River St. in Troy, NY & one can read poetry or prose — what else is there?

The Readings Against the End of the World

(I am thrilled to hear that the 24-hour Readings Against the End of the World will once again, since  1993, be held in Albany -- April 21 - 22.  Sign-up starts March 21 at AlbanyPoets.com, where you can find the details about this & the week-long WordFest.  The following story was originally published in a shorter version in The Story of Albany: Told by the Times Union and its readers, sponsored by the Albany Public Library & published by the Times Union in 2009.)

I left Albany in 1964 when I graduated from high school and headed to college in New York City, and in Albany at that time, there were no bagels and no poetry readings. Now there are plenty of both. One of the local figures who helped get Albany’s vibrant poetry scene going was Tom Nattell. I’ll leave the history of bagels in Albany to someone else.

I returned to Albany in 1986 and eventually found myself at the beginning of the poetry open mic scene that has put Albany on the nation’s poetry map. But in 1986, there were only a few poets who read at the music open mic at the 8th Step on Willett St. However, the energizing force was the annual Readings Against the End of the World, a fund-raiser for the Albany Peace & Energy Council. Tom Nattell coordinated the event, beginning in 1984, a response to the Reagan-era ratcheting up of the nuclear arms race. It took place on a weekend at the end of April (or beginning of May), around Earth Day, from Friday midnight to Saturday midnight at various locations, starting at Richard Genest’s Half-Moon Café on lower Madison Ave., then the Social Justice Center, finally at the 1st Presbyterian Church, above the 8th Step. space, on Willett St. I had discovered the RAEW just before moving back to Albany, reading in it for the first time at 8:45 AM in 1986. After I moved to Albany I helped with the fund-raising & volunteered the day of the readings right up to the last one in 1993.

In 1988, Tom asked me to a take a photo of a rag-tag group of Albany environmental, anti-nuke, peace activists, poets and performers, a publicity shot that then appeared in the local newspapers as promotion for the RAEW. Year after year I would help out with the pre-event phone-tree soliciting funds for the event, taking publicity photos weeks before, doing introductions at odd hours during the readings, folding up tables and chairs at the end. And Tom would be there, constantly, 48 hours straight, he claimed.

Many local and regional writers and performers participated, including Harry Staley, Judith Johnson, Enid Dame, Donald Lev, R.M. Engelhardt, Mary Panza, Don Levy, Alan Catlin, Maurice Kenny, Barbara Smith, & others.  And the occasional “celebrity” would show up: Ed Sanders of The Fugs performed a number of times and I have a photo of William Kennedy reading in 1987. It wasn’t just writers reading. Tom always included a “Children’s Hour,” usually at mid-day and other time slots included dancers, folk singers, magicians, and all kinds of collaborative pieces mixing words, music, visual art, movement & props and gimmicks. You never knew what you would see when you showed up, any time of the day or night. By the last RAEW in 1993 about 170 performers were signed up for 10 minute time slots each.

Tom had a sense of when enough was enough (or too much). In 1993 he quietly ended the Readings Against the End of the World after its tenth event. In a Times Union article by Amy Biancolli published just before the reading, Tom was coy, “Things start and things end, and if this (the readings) turns out to be the last one, it was meant to be the last one.” As word got out that this was indeed the last one, there was of course talk of others taking it over, but no one did. There have been other, similar marathon reading events after, but none ever achieved the energy, the number of performers, or the staying power that Tom, APEC & the army of volunteers achieved over the 10 years of the Readings Against the End of the World.

During the interview with Amy Biancolli Tom had also said, “I’ve got other things that I work on and other things that I like to do…” In fact, by this time Tom was running a monthly poetry open mic at the QE2 rock club on Central Ave. and had recently formed the poetry performance group, 3 Guys from Albany, with Dan Wilcox and Charlie Rossiter, and he would go on to write a popular bi-weekly column for Metroland, Albany’s arts & entertainment weekly. “Things start and things end…”

Tom died of cancer in January 2005. During his last month he arranged for his archives of the 10 years of the Readings Against the End of the World to be stored (and available for public scrutiny) at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany. Included are files of newspaper clippings and other documents, hours of mostly un-edited video tapes of the readings and binders full of photos. If you ever participated in the Readings Against the End of the World, you’re in there somewhere.

WOMPS, March 9

The Word of Mouth Poetry Series is a monthly event at The Art Bar Gallery in Kingston, & is run by Teresa Costa. I’d been wanting to get there for some time for a reading & finally made it for Roberta Gould, whose poetry I like a lot, & for someone I hadn’t heard previously, Karen Corinne Herceg. I had been to the Gallery before for art openings, & there is a bar serving wine & beer, small plates & cheese, as well as always captivating art on the walls.

The features went first, after Teresa read from the Wiccan Book of Days.

Karen Corinne Herceg read first, a long selection from her new book Out from Calaboose (Nirala Publications, 2016). She read a long set of 3 or 4 poems from each of the books’s 5 parts. The poems, as her website says, “explore personal healing as well as broader considerations of political, social & ecological awareness” which I guess covers it all. From what she read tonight her poems were about former lovers (“Too Long 1971”) & the dissolution of relationships (“In My Travels”), even a beheading. There was a poem that honored folk singer Pete Seeger (“Hudson History”), & poems about her mother (“2 Olives Please,” “Loving Hands”). The title poem concerned our own personal imprisonments. Her poems, often narrative, were discursive descriptions, usually with a dramatic conclusion in the last line.

Roberta Gould, on the other hand, was less tidy, more quirky, impressionistic, less narrative. She read poems written since last Fall, starting with one written today, “Substitute.” Her personal ruminations were quirky commentaries, such as “Prepared” (with a kerchief on her head), or “On Receiving a Personal Promotion in the Mail.” She has a definite, appealing surreal side, not just in her dream poems, such as “Piano Tuner” or “Which Way.” & often a bit of humor as in “Choices” & “Manchester Dog Show Valentines Day.” “The Rosendale Overpass” was an elegaic pantoum. Of course, the political was an ever-present table spice, as in “Roman General” & “Demagogue.”

Following all this we needed a “short” break. Then on to the open mic portion with a generous selection of some of the best open mic-ers in the mid-Hudson region.

Alison Koffler is one of my favorites & she read from a new series of poems about imaginary beasts, one set in South Carolina “Beast of the Low Country,” another set in the Catskills “The Beast of the Turning.” Another favorite, whose poetry collection Moses Parts the Tulips (A.P.D., 2013) is still available, Cheryl A. Rice read about her “Forsythias.” Speaking of A.P.D. (another poet Dan) I was next & read selections from my new chapbook Inauguration Raga  in the hopes of promoting & selling copies (sold 1 copy).

Donald Lev, the grand-ole-man of the mid-Hudson poets, read a whole cluster of poems, but he never seems to go too long because his poems are so short; he ranged from jottings on New Years Eve, to checking his booze, to Bob Dylan, refugees, Donald Trump (of course), & a poem for George Wallace, the poet, on Van Gogh — Go Donald!

Another mid-Hudson grand-ole-man, Fred Poole, was able to get here & read a poem of memories of NYC & fear “Alexandria & the El.” There were a few open mic poets I hadn’t seen before, the first of whom was Davida who read a couple of dream poems of imagined, ancient days when there was “no word for Time.” Ron Whiteurs was less etherial with a musical poem titled “Juiced” about a Woodstock jazz musician (whom he refused to name).

Leslie Gerber read poems on dead ones, including 2 on animals, praying to the spirit of his dead dogs (“Foam on Running Water”), & “Soil”on the 104th anniversary of his father’s death. Another reader new to me was Suze Bottigliere with an excerpt (that included lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”) from a longer prose piece “3 Days with Jean-Paul Sartre.” The night was capped by another new voice, Barbara Johnson, who didn’t bring her own work, but read a poem by Myrna Stone.

The Art Bar Gallery at 674 Broadway, Kingston, NY is the site for WOMPS on the 2nd Thursday of the month, with featured poets, an open mic for poets, a bar with snacks & bottle beer & wine. Yum.

Nitty Gritty Slam, March 7

This was the Open Mic night part of this bi-monthly (1st & 3rd Tuesdays) Slam/Open Mic at The Low Beat on Central Ave. Amani, our host, started us off with a affirmation poem about “feeling your awesome.”

The first one on the sign-up sheet, Raymo, announced “I’m not a poet,” then did a 3-part free-style piece, “Hurt, Dirt, Shirt” including sections about his mother being beaten, his fighting back as a young boy. Amani slipped in another performance, then I was up & read sections from my new A.P.D. (alternating poetic device) chapbook Inauguration Raga, then “What Makes America Great #102.”

Poetyc Visionz performed a playful piece riffing on the names of celebrities. JJ, who was here for the first time, read a rhyming poem. This was also the first time here for Jeremiah Paterson, who tried a piece from memory, but had to abandon it. Black Sinatra, with sound by P.V., did a rap on letting her go. Liv took us out of the City with a piece about walking in the woods. Poetyc Visionz was back with a piece that played on song titles.

Sammy read an emotional “Unsent Letter to my Dad."  B. Burgess began with a narrative, then a short poem on Y2K, & finished with a comedy rap on, of all things, race wars.

During the open mic Amani had been circulating a sheet for the creation of a group poem, or as the Dadaist had called it, an Exquisite Corpse, & at the end read it with a couple of compatriots, a romp through the chance juxtaposition of lines that just can’t help but be amusing.

Nitty Gritty Slam is at The Low Beat, 335 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 1st & 3rd Tuesdays at 7PM.

Book Talk Series, March 7

The Friends of the Albany Public Library hold a weekly event at the Washington Ave. Branch at noon which I frequently attend, that includes, in addition to coffee & cookies a review or a talk about book. The books are often non-fiction history, or biography, or political topics, sometimes a novel, even on occasion poetry. & on occasion an author will talk about her or his book. Today, Joseph Cardillo, PhD talked about his book Body Intelligence: Harness Your Body’s Energies for Your Best Life.

Self-help books are, shall I say, not my cup-of-tea & I rarely write about these noon-time book talks, but back in the late 1980s & early 1990s there was a poet & rock musician named Joe Cardillo whom I’d seen perform at local venues, including at the Reading Against the End of the World. He taught writing & was reputed to be a “poetry guru” to students at "Harvard-on-the-Hudson."  So I attended the Library talk today to see the re-branded Joe Cardillo, poet & rock star, as Joseph Cardillo, PhD, self-help guru.

It was pretty much as I had feared. Complete with a Power Point presentation, he talked about “mental flow” & "Energy" defined as "power/force" &/or "information," & about managing the “body intelligences.” There were insightful quotes such as “you are energy, your world is energy, & everything in your world is energy”, & “The key is drawing the right energy for the right task.” & of course there were charts (included in the book) to figure out Your Energy Needs, & another, bigger chart with an equally long title about “How Energy Affects You & How.”  There was the customary celebrity name-dropping, including former football player Michael Strahan, & morning talk-show hosts whose names I didn't recognize.

Joe Cardillo (r.) with Elaine McHenry, RAEW 1990

It made me think of the poet William Blake’s quote, “Energy is Eternal Delight.”

In looking for photos of Joe Cardillo from back in the day, I found a journal entry from March 1988 about an event organized by Tom Nattell at the QE2, “The Peoples’ Poetry Reading,” at which Joe was on the program with Paul Weinman & Judith Johnson. Joe performed his poems backed up with a guitar & a piano.  I noted in my write-up that he was “wrecked,” tossing around lots of “fucks” & other “rough language,” until chastised by a woman in the audience who shouted (interestingly enough, given his topic today), “watch the women’s energy, Joe.”

Anyway, it seems that it is all performance, whether poetry or rock'n'roll or motivational speaking,
but now Joe is selling many more of his self-help books than he did his poetry or his music CDs.

Yes! Poetry & Performance Series, March 4th

The Yes! reading series has moved over with the Albany Center Galleries to the Arcade Building, 488 Broadway, & tonight the walls were covered, salon-style, floor to ceiling with photos from regional photographers hoping to have our work chosen for the forthcoming 39th Annual Photography Regional (March 17 - April 21). As always, this reading presented a vibrant mix of poetry, art & music. The series is run by James Belfower & Matthew Klane, with Matthew doing the introductions tonight.

Stephanie Kaylor is a writer from Albany. She read from her phone, short poems without introductions or other commentary, but the work was filled with a prominent, sometimes insistent, “I.” I may have missed the titles for the first few poems when she was just warming up, but there seemed to be a baby in there somewhere, & storms. A poem titled “Learner’s Permit” included a mom, while “On Being an Angel” & “Bachlorette” explored relationships. She also read some poems that were from a series about “an unidentified woman” as the central character, with the titles set up like headlines in a newspaper, exploring the role of women in the world, including death & crime. She read her poems in a quiet, flat style & seemed to lack experience reading them out; with some practice at open mics I think she might be able to develop a more assertive or dynamic reading style to enhance the experience of the audience in hearing them.

Dora Malech began by drawing attention to her pregnant belly & reading a poem titled “4 Weeks” on being pregnant & introducing the term “primitive streak” about a stage of embryonic development. She followed that with new work from a residency she is currently in, not sure if it was one piece or a series of shorter pieces, pondering, wondering about her feelings in images & of pictures on a wall, one section with oblique images of refugees in an airport. Next she read “Essay on Yes,” described as a prose poem exploring her motivation in writing with constraints, such as couplets of anagrams, many incorporated into the piece. She ended with a section of an anagrammatic poem in couplets to give us an idea of that writing.

Andy Larsen gave a solo tuba performance of 3 pieces, the first by a minimalist Polish composer (whose name I did not catch), the second from 1973 titled “Cadence 6” with taped accompaniment, that he had prepared. Both pieces sometimes loud, challenging. The 3rd piece was much quieter, more peaceful, & titled appropriately enough “Floating Dreams.”

Yes! takes place on the first Saturdays of the month until May at 7:00PM, at the ACG new location 488 Broadway, Albany, NY — a $5.00 suggested donation. Find them on Face Book.

Poets Speak Loud!, February 27

Ah, McGeary’s, for drink, for food, service & Poetry (!). It became a full house, lorded (ladyied?) over by host Mary Panza. Having gotten to there early for dinner with Don Levy I ended up once again as 1st on the list, & read selections from Inauguration Raga my chapbook from A.P.D. (a presidential disaster), then, in honor of the night’s featured poet, Alifair Skebe, a “mirror poem” “Balthus.”

Mark O’Brien made a rare visit off the hill to read a poem with the long title “It is in the Shelter of Each Other that People Live” set in a doctor’s waiting room. Alan Casline also made a rare appearance downtown, read what he called an “old-timey contemporary poem for Albany” titled “A Pretty Package.” Dawn Marar’s 2 poems were ones she selected from her oeuvre after reading Alifair’s book, both about visits to what we call the “Middle East,” one about the fear of traveling “On the Road to Damascus,” & the other about a market “Sea Creature.” Mary Panza introduced our beloved Don Levy as “everyone’s gay husband” & he read a poem about not mellowing with age “Unmellow Yellow,” & another titled “I Am a Snowflake Hear Me Roar.” Carol Jewell read 2 wonderfully tender poems I’ve heard her read previously “Flashing” (an AM menopausal romp thru a neighbor’s sprinklers) & “The Boxes of Your Stuff.”

I’ve been reading Alifair Skebe’s book of poetry, Thin Matter (Foothills Publishing, 2017) since it was published, & heard her read from it at the book launch at The Cheese Traveler in December, 2016.  They are the kind of poems I return to, to seek out their meaning, to study what she is doing with the structure, the lines, the sounds. She does not play just to play but to mean & do. Her reading tonight was from the book & from a series of new poems. The poems read from Thin Matter were ones she had read outdoors during her recent trip to Ireland, memorialized by the text in her copy run from the insistent Irish rain. She started with the paired “The Seed” & “The Seed’s Intention,” then to “The One, the Infinite,” “A thin piece is fine,” “The Mirror Riddles” (which makes sense read forward or backward), “By the Riverbank,” “Poem for June,” “The Stale Air Conceit’s Sun,” & appropriately enough “Clouds.” The new poems are actually an old manuscript Alifair worked on at a recent writing retreat, the poems based on the myth of Eros & Psyche, except that in her version the role of Eros is replaced by Thanatos (Death). She described it as “a novel in verse.” The poems had titles such as “Psyche’s First Fortune Teller,” “Psyche Meets Thanatos at a Friend’s Party,” & “Psyche’s Year in Review.”

Back to the open mic, Joe Krausman’s 2 poems were on the theme of truth & trust, the first a bedside monologue titled “All Trumped Up,” the other titled “Trust or Trust No One.” Tom Riley read a couple of untitled pieces & said he was open to suggestions for titles; the first on Winter, the second about his uncle & his stuff. Nancy Dunlop began with a tribute to Maggie Roche, of the folk-rock group “The Roches,” who died in January, then read “Some Poems” an anaphoric list of what poems are, what they mean, what they can be.

Adam Tedesco, who will be back here next month with the crew of Reality Beach to be the feature, read a couple poems from a project to write poems inspired by the Chinese Misty poets, particularly Bai Dao. Carrie Czwahiel’s first poem “Infusion Life Line” was about her regular treatment for MS, then “Zachary’s Champion” used images from Greek myths. Julie Lomoe wrapped up the night with an old poem, “A Meditation on Meditation.”

I regret that I cannot include the flavor of some of the banter & Mary Panza’s remarks between poets, or some of the things she said about each of us — maybe next time. To hear it yourself, come to Poets Speak Loud! on the last Monday of the month at McGeary’s Irish Pub on Sheridan Square in Albany, NY, 7:30PM, a project of AlbanyPoets.com.