2nd Sunday @ 2 - Poetry + Prose, September 9

After our Summer break, we (Nancy Klepsch & I) were back for our 9th year (!) of poetry + prose at the Arts Center in Troy - & a dozen on the sign-up sheet.

Just because it was there, I was signed up #1 & Nancy #2. I began with an old poem for the season “Tashlich” & my new ditty about the Valley Cats’ Pineadas. Nancy Klepsch read a new poem about Serena Williams, then a love poem for the everyday.

Dan Curley was back from his Roman sojourn & read 2 poems, the richly descriptive “The Starlings are Riding” (& counting), & “Toward a Grammar of Death” done up like a grammar text, complete with examples of usage. Dave DeVries began with “Rhythm” on music & the beat of words, then one from walking his dog in a cemetery “Gone.” Carol H. Jewell read from her 2017 chapbook Hits & Missives (Clare Songbirds Publishing House), “Furtive” & “Cento Pantoum #1” with lines from famous poets. Poor Bob Sharkey had a tough time making up his mind to choose from 5 poems, went with the “Ode to Our Laundry Basket” like an autobiography of a marriage, & one about visiting the Clark museum with his granddaughter, “Johanna in the Maze.”

Kendall Hoeft (who was wearing the fanciest socks in the place) read 2 sensuous poem written at a recent poetry workshop, “Shock Me Major Tom” & “Barrier” (what desire looks like). Karen Fabiane said the poems she read she hadn’t read out before, the first starts with a painting & heads out from there “Bumps Shouts & Pops,” then read “Finding the Car” where description leads to memories & ponderings. John Teevan read a story titled “International Territory” from his book of stories A Mysterious Evening in Vienna. Mike Connor read about laundry & “The Cool that Came off Sheets,” mentioning the anniversary of the death of Seamus Heaney, then one about the confluence of Autumn & his mother-in-law in hospice “Maple Blight.”

I’d heard Philip M. Williamston read at Arthur’s Market in Schenectady & here he was today in Troy with 2 political pieces, “Jack Johnson’s Face” & “Build a Blue Wave.” Kate Gillespie, who described herself as a “poet & scientist,” was here for the first time; she read “The Misconceptions of Microbes” then a walking poem written during a poetry workshop on Martha’s Vineyard “A Silent Wednesday Morning.”

An excellent start for this season of 2nd Sunday @ 2 open mics at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St., Troy, NY — Free! Bring 2 poems or 5 minutes (max.) of prose.