Getting Down to Brass Tacks, January 15

It’s a new year & it’s about time I got down to brass tacks & down to The Low Beat (there’s a song in there somewhere). I was surprised to see Mary Panza at the bar with the open mic sign-up clipboard rather than Thom Francis. But Mary said Thom was ill so she was filling in as the host tonight. There were a few folks sitting by the window but they said they were here just to listen. So we waited & then someone strolled in, & signed up, said his name was Phelix.

When it was time to start, Mary called us all forward closer to the stage for what I think is the smallest open mic that I’ve been to, at least that I’ve documented (here), not counting a couple I actually made up because no one actually read.

I went first & since everyone in the room hadn’t heard my poems previously (with the exception of Mary, & Kim the bartender) I read some older pieces, “Books Not Bombs” (the most recent poem of the bunch), “Ordering Lunch,” & the classic “Where Were the Professors?”

Phelix was next (& the last) with a piece perhaps titled “Hello Stranger” written in Rome, a nervous conversation with a star, & thinking of a lost love.

& that was that. But Getting Down to Brass Tacks, a poetry open mic, happens on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month at The Low Beat, 335 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:30PM — visit the AlbanyPoets.com website for more information.