Poets Speak Loud!, July 30

As always here at McGeary’s it was a special night on the last Monday of the month. There was a variety of open mic poets, even a first-timer, & a featured poet, D. Alexander Holiday, who might be called the “Jiminy Cricket" on race issues for the poetry scene. &, of course, the host, Mary Panza.

I was the first on the sign-up list (even though others had signed the list before me) & I read the brand new “What Makes America Great #17” based on signs from the #MarchForOurLives rallies, & the bar-jotting poem “My Lucky Hat.” Being on Summer vacation Samuel Weinstein read a couple Summer poems “A Sunny Day” &, from a prompt from a friend, “Smokey Summer Emerald Eyes.”

Mary Panza takes Joe Krauman's picture

Joe Krausman passed around a picture of his father taken in Lebanon (the country, not the rural town in New York) in 1924 & read his poem about it “Is the Guy on the Left [his father] Charlie Chaplin?” then a poem titled “Gratitude.” Linda Boulette read the related poems “The Angel of Death Speaks” & “The Spirit of Life Speaks.”  

Marianna Boncek made a rare appearance here with a poem titled “Iftar” (the daily meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan) about a well built as a tribute to the dead, the a forward-looking poem “The End of Patriarchy.”

Our featured poet, D. Alexander Holiday, has been on the scene since the early 1990s, & is the author of a number of books of poetry & prose, the most recent Kith & Kin: A Klannish, Klownish, Tragic Komedy, written as G. Douglas Davis, IV. Often a serious poet on topical/political themes, tonight’s performance had more than the usual share of humor, but it’s point just as sharp, perhaps sharper. He began with “The Tee Shirt” that he bought at an Irish Festival that said “Irish Livers Matter," then on to a couple poems about Roseanne Barr, one in the voice of the ghosts Confederate soldiers “that made her” send her tweets. After discussing Philip Roth’s novel The Plot Against America, he said he was dedicating the rest of his reading to the children in detention centers, & read from his 2011 book E-mails from Satan’s Daughter, then to “13 Years a Slave, Me” from Kith & Kin. He concluded with the political commentary “Invisible Music” complete with dancing to what he was hearing on his earphones & a fancy Church-lady fan.

Then on to the rest of the open mic, with Dave Kime, also making a welcome, rare appearance, reading (no mic needed) “Nightfall” & the anti-corporate TV screed “Blue Light.” Don Levy’s poem “Home Movies 1947” was a look at the history of gays in America before it was safe(r) to come out. Frank Robinson’s poem “The Wanderers” took us into his & Therese’s home as boxes of files of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild moved from their basement, to the kitchen, to the dining room, etc., then a political parable based on the story in Genesis “Original Sin, the 2nd Bite.” Therese Broderick read about burning her face from sunglasses left in the sun on the dashboard of her car “Sunglasses Gone the Way of the Dodo.”

Bob Sharkey’s poem “Malone” was about a road-trip when he was working for NY State, then the travel-guide “Things to Do in East Latham” (who knew?!). Jeff Stubits made a return appearance with a poem entitled “Poetry” which he likened to berries, then wondered “When Will the Moon Be Renovated?” (in order to be closer to God).

Our last reader was Joan Geitz who had showed up to listen & hadn’t planned to read but Mary convinced her & she read the political rant/curse “For the War Mongers,” fitting right in with the readers tonight.

You are never sure who (or what) will show up in McGeary’s backroom for Poets Speak Loud! most last Mondays of the year, 7:30PM, a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us. McGeary’s is on Sheridan Square in Albany, NY, across the street from the Palace Theater.