Poetry at the Altamont Fair, August 15

As far as I can tell from my records, the first time I attended the Poetry readings (called “Poetry Appreciation”) at the Altamont Fair it was in 1992 in the Hayes House where the art is exhibited. I note another attendance the following year where Charlie Rossiter & I are conflated to “Dan Rossiter.” In those early days each person who signed up got a small plaque, no name, just a metal design tacked to a piece of polished wood.

A few years ago Alan Casline took over the event, perhaps after the death of William Robert Foltin, & the reading is now held at the Carriage Museum, a larger more open space, on the Altamont Fairgrounds. He includes not only an open mic but also a “round-robin” where folks read the words of gone poets -- but no commemorative plaque (I'd thrown my out years ago).

D. Alexander Holiday trying to cool off

It was quite an open mic list with a cross-section of sweat-soaked poets from the area, along with a new voice. Dianne Sefcik read a poem for the late John Abbuhl, other pieces including “an attempt at a poem on peace.” Among Tom Bonville’s poems was “At the Altamont Fair” about reading a poem at the Altamont Fair, which became a sub-theme. Karen Schoemer’s poems were descriptive pieces like notebook entries from her life. When I read I started off with “Altamont Fair Poem” (included in the recent Coast to Coast: the Route 20 Anthology as “County Fair Poem”) which I believe I wrote for the 1992 reading here. I also believe that this was the first time here for D. Alexander Holiday who read a series of political (i.e., anti-Trump) rants. Bob Sharkey’s selections were a variety, including one of his signature fortune cookie poems & the Irish fantasy of wandering with Leopold Bloom thru modern Troy.

Mark W. O’Brien took us for a stroll down his Memory Lane including his poem “Shunpiker” from Coast to Coast. His wife, Gale Allen, sang a church-lady song “Even Song in Oxford on St. Cecilia’s Day” (whose feast day is November 22 - what event in American history occurred on that day?). Tom Corrado read #353 from his epic compilation of his “screen dumps” A Dump a Day.

A new face & voice, Amber Seymour, read a variety of poems, ones inspired by The Yellow Submarine, a found poem from the newspaper, & a collection of “wise sayings.” Betty Zerbst’s poems were a combination of nostalgia with happy, greeting-card thoughts. Sally Rhoades read recent poems from her trips to Cyprus & to Catalonia. Signed up as “www.group” Mimi Moriarty, Deni Whalen & Kathleen Smith did 3 rounds of alternating poems, ranging far & wide, from prompts on “maps,” to more elaborate prompts, to found poems, to poems on Peeps & on horses. Julie Lomoe read writing from a recent trip to Colorado to attend a conference of “Romance writers” including a memoir about horseback riding (must be the fact we were in the “Carriage House”). Robb Smith finished us off with an excerpt of a short story titled “Devil’s Night.”

After a break for beer, & cool breezes (did I say it was hot in there?), a few of us staggered back for tributes to gone poets such as Harry Staley, John Abbuhl, Paul Pines & others.

Getting in my car I noticed that I certainly had some mud on my sandals, but, fortunately, no horseshit.