Megaphone, June 15

I was pleased to have been invited to read with William Seaton in this monthly series at the Seligmann Center in Sugar Loaf, NY. The Saturday poetry series is coordinated by poet Janet Hamill.

The Seligmann Center is an art center located on the 50-acre rural homestead of Swiss-American Surrealist painter Kurt Seligmann (1900-1962) and his wife Arlette (Wildenstein Paraf) Seligmann (1906-1992). The Seligmann Center is committed to celebrating the artistic and intellectual legacy of Kurt Seligmann, honoring the history of its site, and presenting contemporary work by emerging and established artists.

Given that I was reading on the homestead of an international Surrealist, & that I was reading with William Seaton, one of who’s books is Dada Poetry: An Introduction (Nirala Publications, 2013), I started with a couple poems in a more “experimental” mode than my usual snarky rants, “Saturday Hawk” & the multi-lingual “Kadinsky’s Red Spot” that includes a translation into Russian by Inna Erlikh. Then on to playful pieces from Poeming the Prompt (A.P.D., 2011) “Poeming” & “The Lesson,” from the chapbook Baseball Poems (A.P.D., 2019) “The Cardinal,” & my tribute to poets Harry Staley & Paul Pines “Reading Dead Poets Listening to Live Jazz.” I ended with a political poem “Books Not Bombs.”

William Seaton set the tone for his reading with a quote from that great American philosopher, Walt Kelly, the creator of the comic strip Pogo, then on to some playful rhymes & wordplay, & descriptions such as “Cabbage,” “Grape Leaves,” “Watermelon,” & a poem in which he wonders if he is just a video game. Others were “though experiments” such as one titled “Time’s Arrow” where he considers Time going backwards. He moved on to a series of travel pieces, beginning with prose portraits of people he had met along the way, then a poem listing the things done titled “A Vision of the Invisible,” others, such as “Bullfight,” & “The Clock of d’Avignon.” A poem from “long ago, a snapshot” was titled “Golden Park Through a Telescope Forged on an Anvil of Ease,” & ended with the last paragraph of an essay on what poetry is good for, with the image of Orpheus as a detective in a film noir.

It was great fun to read with William Seaton & to find out about this venue, & about the work & legacy of Kurt Seligmann. Note that there is no poetry programming here in July & August, with the next Megaphone poetry event on Saturday September 21 with poets Robert Milby & Howard Horowitz, & an open mic.