The Rev Reading Series, April 4

This was the final reading in a semester-long series at the Sage College in Troy, NY, coordinated by Matthew Klane. It was held this day in the Bush Memorial, re-configured to give it a more informal feel & so the readers would not have to be hidden behind the huge pulpit that is like something out of the beginning of Moby Dick, behind which some many poets previously had shrunk.

The first reader was Donika Kelly who read mostly from her book Bestiary (Graywolf Press, 2016), but she began with a poem about driving to Utah “Out West.” Her poem “4th Grade Biography” was about her Dad, in LA post-riots after the Rodney King verdict. Then on to the poems about the mythological figures, short poems each titled in this fashion: “Love Poem: Chimera,” The other figures were Pegasus, Centaur, Satyr, Mermaid, Griffin, Dinga & Minotaur. This being an institution of higher learning, & Donika Kelly being a teacher, she carefully described the commonly depicted characteristics of each. However, she stated that she was trying to figure out what these mythological figures were “really” like, an odd thing to say since they are, by definition, not real. Oh well, it make for fun poetry.

Danielle Pafunda is Albany-born & grew up in Altamont, she now lives in the West.  She began with pieces from The Dead Girls Speak in Unison (Blood Books, 2016), short, grim poems, including “The Chorus,” “The Chant,” others, a poem about the Devil that is also a love poem, & “a poem of threats” that she said there are lots of in this book. She then read a from a new series of memoir poems, apparently titled "The Book of Scabs," cast as letters to her parents, even one set at SPAC talking about True Love as a character, poems that perhaps could be labeled “speculative fiction,” full of self-involved teenage angst, sex, & death. By way of an explanation, perhaps, she said at one point, “as an artist I think about aesthetics” — don’t one.

One can only hope that that this interesting series continues next semester & beyond. Look for them on Face Book https://www.facebook.com/russellsagereview/