W.O.M.P.S.: Thom Francis, Rebecca Schumejda — April 12

This monthly series continues at the ArtBar Gallery in Kingston, this night 2 of my favorite poets & people on the planet, introduced by the host of the series, Teresa Costa.

Thom Francis, el presidente of AlbanyPoets.com, is a guy who makes things happen in the world of poetry in the Capital Region. He is a modest poet, not making grand statements, instead making his point by describing the everyday world around him. He read mostly new poems, beginning with one with the poignant line “… my father lives 15 minutes from me … might be on another planet.” From a series of poems on people watching he read “Telling Other People’s Stories,” then read “Running Away” inspired by an online picture, then "Waiting for the Weekend” about a girl at a bar, & “Obey.” Ending with a couple of older pieces he read “Watching You Crumble,” then “April 1st” the only poem he wrote for the poem-a-day challenge in 2016 — hey, better to write one good poem than 30 days of shitty ones.

Rebecca Schumejda, like Thom, writes poem from her everyday/workday experience. She has 3 full-length collections out (not to mention a couple of chapbooks). She began with 2 poems, “The Idiot Pill” & “After Her Shift” from Waiting at the Dead End Diner (Bottom Dog Press, 2014), based on her experience working at the Olympia Diner in Kingston. From her collection of poems about owning a pool hall, Cadillac Men (NYQ Books, 2012), she read “Bobby Balls in Hand.” Her latest collection is Our One-Way Street (NYQ Books, 2017) from which she read a couple pieces, including “Do Not Enter” that included a local poet whom some of us know, but who was not in the audience. She ended with a poem from a new series on mental illness &incarceration “In Search of Winged Creatures.” As always, I was in love.

We took a break, then on to the open mic. Judy was first up with 2 poems for a friend whose son had died, “Riding in Paradise” & “As a Mother.” Teresa had announced a theme, “Dead Poets” for those who wanted to read poems by others, & Richard read 3 poems by Saul Elliot, short, philosophical, sometime aphoristic poems. Teresa followed with 3 poems George Montgomery, “Brooklyn Born Angel,” another about a Woodstock girl, & “Thinking of You.” The Patriarch Donald Lev read a string of short poems (some very short), such as “Fucking Off” about becoming a poet, “Ping Pong,” “Aluminum,” “Pieces,” “Rusted Out” (his oil tank), & “Policy”.

Photo by Dayl Wise

I sort of followed Teresa’s Dead Poets suggestion by reading my poem/essay “Believe, Believe” based on Bob Kaufman’s poem of the same title which I also read. Ralph Carusillo read from his chapbook The Grand Facade a poem in rhyme titled “Mire.” Fred Poole read a couple of memoir pieces, the first about the peace of childhood, his twin, & of “darkies,” the other about riding in Arizona. Suze Bottigliero's choice was Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” (her name), which she read for her “crazy love” (Joe) who had died recently, then a couple of her own pieces about him, “The Night I Missed Him & Watched Vertigo,” one called simply “Vertigo,” & some lines about watching classic movies in the early AM “White Wine & Licorice.”

Dayl Wise, who was also taking pictures, read a couple of odes, remembering his days in the military, “First Cut: Ode to the Military Barber” & “Ode to the P-38” the small (it could fit on the
chain with your dogtags) can-opener necessary to be able to open the C-rations. Gary Siegel rounded out the night with a trio of poems, “A Love I Never Knew” about sex & being clueless & sad, “Porcelain Prophet” about a character encountered in the Men’s Room of Grand Central Station, & a funny piece in half-rhymes what he called “a little poem from the morning.”

W(ord). O(f). M(outh). P(oetry). S(eries). takes place on the 2nd Thursday of the month at the ArtBar Gallery, 674 Broadway, Kingston, NY, with a featured poet (or 2) & an open mic for the rest of us.