Arthur’s Market Open Mic, February 14

This being Valentines Day I had a date with my longest-lasting honey, Poetry, at the monthly open mic at Arthur’s Market in Schenectady. There was even a featured poet, Sarah Giragosian. But first some of the open mic.

Our host, Catherine Norr, started us off with a romantic ditty sung a cappella “Would You Walk Down the Valley Beside a Friend.” Once again (see the last Blog) I signed up in the open #1 slot to read 2 love poems, “Said Again” about re-cycling the words of old love poems, & one from Poeming the Prompt (A.P.D., 2011) "November 23."  Phil Williamston also had a poem on the day’s theme, his was titled “Love’s Labyrinth,” then he recited a blues tune about a character “Cash Daddy.”

Rich did pieces from memory, including singing “My Favorite Things” & poems he said were from when he “was in a leper colony in North Carolina.” Taz Pannell read 3 parts of a long poem “The War Rages On” that seemed to be about relationships & the nature of love. Scott Morehouse had us laughing along with his “absurdist” social commentary composed of a series of vignettes titled, ironically, “Modern Miracles.”



The featured poet was Sarah Giragosian who read 3 poems from her book Queer Fish (Dream Horse Press, 2017), which was the winner of the American Poetry Journal Book Prize, & read some newer poems as well. The poems from the book were “To the Meerkat,” “Classifieds: Missed Connections” & “The Queer Creatures that Rise at Dusk,” which were tantalizing teasers to buy the book, poems of lush language, all with animals, insects, birds, etc. used as images of love, desire & sex — I bought the book. The newer poems also involved other creatures (& love) “The Crocodile Sleeps,” “Notes Toward an Apology” & “Devils Heads” (an invasive “Asian chestnut”). I think I’m going to be hanging out with Queer Fish for a while.

After a break to buy books, Catherine Norr brought us back to the open mic with 2 poems about her mother, “Mom” & “Stroke” from her 2014 book from Finishing Line Press Return to Ground. Bill Poppino read a New York Times article headlined “California: the Nation State.” Jackie Craven began with a punning mash-up of food & the evening news “She Serves the News for Dinner,” then a tongue-twister of a love poem “Vole Poem.” Susan Jewell read what she called a Valentine for the folks here “Gods & Angels” with references to the movie Paterson & local poets.

The evening concluded with 2 poets who were both here for the first time. Caroline Bardwell, who has begun to make the rounds of open mic venues, read a piece titled “Appealing to Wisdom” which seemed like a love poem & a plan to do better so perhaps a love poem to herself, then a love sonnet “Unrequited.”

Charlie Straney has also read at other venues in the area but this was his first time at Arthur’s Market; he read “How It Ends,” a poem of the open field, & “Dunsing (? spelling) Tip” about wild ponies in Ireland.

The open mic at Arthur’s Market in the Stockade Section of Schenectady is held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, starting at 7:30PM, with a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us, & it’s free.