Word Thursdays: Charlie Rossiter, July 12

It’s been some time since I made it over the mountains to the Bright Hill Literary Center in Treadwell, NY (look that up on your Google Maps), but tonight the featured poet was my fellow member of 3 Guys from Albany Charlie Rossiter & I had to make the trip.

Our host was the new Executive Director of the Bright Hill Literary Center, Beatrice Georgalidis, who introduced the founder & now-retired Director, Bertha Rogers, as the first reader in the open mic; Bertha read 3 sonnets, the first 2 one-sentence sonnets, “Stellar’s Jay” & “In New York,” then a sonnet written in more than one sentence ”Highway in Winter.”

Nancy Smith-Watson was up next to talk about a collaborative of project between Bright Hill Literary Center, & Feast of Crispian (out of Milwaukee, WI) & the Lake Arts Project, that includes a series of workshops with veterans writing their stories & performance of contemporary ballet & dance at the Walton Theater on August 18, War, Words, Dance; check out the website for details.

Cicada was in from Denver, read “How to Know the True Bugs,” “Desert Ode” (inspired by, who else?, Edward Abbey), & an energetic piece titled “#Make Big Art” from a Colorado anthology. I followed with “Kerouac” inspired by George Wallace’s video piece about Guenther’s Tavern in Northport, NY, then the rant “Buttons Not Bombs,” & a tiny piece inspired by Buddhist monks at the Grafton Peace Pagoda “Leaves.” Michael Czarnecki, publisher of FootHills Publishing, read 3 untitled pieces from his recent collection You: Spontaneous Poet #3. His traveling companion, Gwen Zimmerman, who also selected the poems for You, read a poem about a quiet moment after a “Ritual Bath,” then 3 short pieces written recently at night, “Manifestation,” “Emanation,” & Ascension.”

Ginnah began with a poem titled “Now” then read about going from Queens, NY to Florida in Winter “Paradise,” & ended with “Full Disclosure” about her son & getting a puppy. Jennifer read from the prologue to her memoir about teaching in the Middle East, this segment about consulting a psychiatrist. Jesse, who writes for The Daily Star, read “Thanksgiving Mirage,” & “Within the Song;” he also mixed business with pleasure by interviewing some of us for the Street Talk column.  Marie Cummings was the last of the open mic readers & read from a chapter of frothier book "The Doll House" a conversation with the manager of a strip-club.

Charlie Rossiter knows how to give a poetry reading. He started as he usually does with “Reading Snake-Back Solos Listening to Haydn” from his 1999 Evening Stones (Ye Olde Font Shoppe), a performance piece with claves, then to his take on Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago,” this time the city as a dog. He went on to selections of poems from a his books, all published by FootHills Publishing, The Night We Danced with the Raelettes (2007), All Over America: Road Poems (2009), Coast to Coast: the Route 20 Anthology (2018), & the forthcoming Green Mountain Meditations. In between he included some recent poems, for a varied & engaging reading.

Word Thursday is a regular series at the Bright Hill Literary Center in beautiful downtown Treadwell, NY, as well as a rich selection of other literary, & arts events as well as programs for children & others in the community. Check out their website.