Arthur’s Market Open Mic, August 8

The Poetry Taxi took Don Levy to Schenectady for this open mic, which featured the poet Dawn Marar. Our host Catherine Norr started us off, as she does, with a song, tonight’s like a spiritual.

While I parked the car, Don had signed me up - first - & I read the brand-new “What Makes America Great #17” & Tom Nattell’s “Hiroshima.” It was a welcome 2nd time in 2 days to see Caroline Bardwell who read 2 new poems, a Rondeau “This Fire Within” & “Torn” about tearing away, divorce & facing the future. A poet I hadn’t seen before tonight, Michael Quinn Voyt, read a love-poem of self-discovery “Re-birth” & the stress-relieving “Exhale in a Bubble.”

Scott Morehouse often leaves us laughing & he did so again tonight with an hilarious piece about a dream of being stuck in 12th grade forever “Back to School.” Jackie Craven read a couple of “water poems” beginning with “The Psychic Says” she had past lives as bodies of water, then “I Heard a River Downstairs.” Betty Zerbst’s first poem, “The Hurt I Feel Inside,” was based on a prompt from an online poetry group then she read a piece about re-connecting with a “Teen Age Crush.” My passenger Don Levy had 2 new poems, the first about an Albany Facebook flurry “The Nazi Downtown,” then the much funnier “Bus Hottie Number 203.”

Even though I’ve seen Dawn Marar, tonight’s featured poet, read a couple times in recent months, promoting her new book, she does give “good read.” She began with a poem about paper clips “Gem” then a sonnet “This Ring.” From Efflorescence (Finishing Line Press, 2018) she read “Heavenly Bodies” & “Fusion Approach to Gathering” (a poem for 2 voices, aided by her husband Hani). In between, she read the sensual “Late Summer Missive” & at the end read a poem from a visit to Paris “This Hunched Back.”

After a break, our host Catherine Norr was back to talk of the recently gone poet Paul Pines, then read her own poem “Within the Mandala.” Susan Jewell read a dream poem “Portals (Thank You for Your Understanding)” from her ongoing exercise of writing from Rattle magazine’s ekphrastic prompts. Judith Prest began with a poem “Thunder’s Name” from a chapbook manuscript, then a memory poem with the recurring line “when I found out my father was the pilot…” Rick Harringer made a welcome appearance before his upcomng move to Florida to do from memory “Dale County Blues” about being on a prison farm down South.

Another face/voice I hadn’t seen/heard previously was Barbara DelMastro who read poems written on a recent retreat, “Loon” & “Thin Places” (a Celtic term for a holy place where the Spirit comes through). Malcolm Willison rounded off the night with a description of a rural scene “Night Chamber” & “High Wire Antics” on the end of Ringling Brothers circus & the circus in the White House.

Another pleasant night of poetry at this friendly place in Schenectady, Arthur’s Market on Ferry St., each 2nd Wednesday, 7:30PM, with a featured poet & an open mic for the community of poets.