2nd Wednesday Open Mic, September 11

This Schenectady series has done well since relocating from Arthur’s Market to a store-front on State St. It has maintained its simple format (open mic & feature in an informal setting) & continues to draw the city’s community poets & others. Tonight’s featured poets were from 2 distant ends of our poetry geography, Judith Kerman from the mid-Hudson area, & Marilyn McCabe from the North Country. But first our host Jackie Craven got us started with a poem for the spirit of the day (note the date) by our current New York State Poet Alicia Ostriker “The Window at the Moment of Flame.”

Then on to the open mic list. Alan Catlin began by citing the work of poet Edward Dougherty & his book of 9/11 poems from Finishing Line Press 10048, then read read his own poems from that day, “Remembering Working in a Bar on 9/11,” “What’s Wrong” (a conversation with a waitress that day), then another from a month later. I followed — on theme — with my poem “Another Tuesday” linking the attack on the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, with the murderous coup in Chile, orchestrated by the US Government, on Tuesday, September 11, 1973.

Susan Kress gave us a merciful break from that day with her childhood memoir of play-acting with a friend “Re-hearsing.” Susan Carroll Jewell returned to this date with another of her ekphrastic poems responding to the challenge in Rattle magazine “Flight 93,” then her 1st place poem in this year’s New York State Fair Competition “At Long Pond.” Scott Morehouse can be counted on to get us laughing, as he did this night, with 2 linked poems “Family Business Exhibit A” (playing off the local ad for a Kia dealer), then “Exhibit B” about his family of doctors.

Featured poet Marilyn McCabe said she had been thinking about democracy, about our country & about our fellow citizens & thus designed her reading around those themes. She began with “Polling Place” a nostalgic yearning for the old style ones, then on to “We the People,” both poems introducing her wry humor that alleviates the grim. “Pro Patria” was looking at the small things, the undersides, while “Deep River” was a quieter poem. “Lantern” injected some hope, an exercise in the great chain of being starting with an island being born, reminiscent of Native myths of the creation of the earth/Turtle Island. Her list of folks that annoy her was titled “Old Man Withered Chevrolet,” & she ended with another hopeful piece, “Fish Tank.”

Judith Kerman read from her books, beginning with 2 poems from Postcards from America (Post Traumatic Press, 2015) “Infrastructure” a 9/11 poem, & “Blight." From Aleph, broken: Poems from My Diaspora (Broadstone Books, 2016) her first attempt at a poem in Spanish “Canto Extraño,” “Cholent,” & “Star-nosed Mole” which she sang. In between she sang “Exile Song” using a bowl as chime. From a new manuscript of poems Gimp about disability she read “After a Failed Surgery,” “Call Button,” “Chair,” “Downfall” (an abecedarian), & Disabled. From a manuscript of definition poems she ended with “Elephant,” “Fix,” “Gimp,” “Handicap,” & “Legs,” & ended with another song, this about a deep-sea diver.

Back to the open mic, David Graham read 2 poems from his new book The Honey of Earth (Terrapin Books, 2019), “Homage to Sadie Bosheers” & “Most of the Time We Live Through the Night” which is a line from poet Robert Bly. Adel Fredenburg, who was new here, introduced herself by stating that she has been writing since her husband passed away 10 years ago, & read 3 poems, “Balancing Act,” “The Performer” & a romantic poem about sailing on the Sacandaga “Looking Back.”

Ginny Folger read a short & sweet work-in-progress “Perfect Recall.” Malcolm Willison has been writing about the house once owned by Elizabeth Bishop in Key West, read “Reprise” (which is number 19 in the series), & an old poem “The Presidential Palace at Eve.” Our host, Jackie Craven, ended the night with a poem her book Secret Formulas, one about past lives “The Psychic Says.”

Another pleasant night of poetry in Schenectady, where the poets gather each 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM at C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios, 137 State St., Schenectady — feature poets & an open mic — hosted by Jackie Craven.