2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, November 10

Photo by Nancy Klepsch

We were upstairs in the dance studio of the Arts Center, with a wonderful mix of poets & prose writers to spend a Sunday afternoon, with Nancy Klepsch & I as the co-hosts.

I was up first with a couple poems from the poetry workshop at the Dogtown Writers Festival back in September, “Horizon” & a trip down memory lane on “The Porch.” Bob Sharkey dug his poems out of his back pocket & read a dream poem “Have You Had?" then one from his series of Chinese fortune cookie variations ”Postcard Fortunes.” Dave DeVries was dressed for the Veterans Day/Armistice Day weekend in his Army beret & spit-shined boots to read “My Old Black Boots,” then an amusing piece on the names of towns “Not There.”

Dianne Sefcik read a piece written in response to the “Dear Herman” contest Nancy & I had run for the Melville House in Lansingburgh, but not submitted, “Dear Herman: At Sea” (but she was one of the four winners with the piece she did submit). Joel Best began with a flashback to childhood, “The Night Before the Night it Ended,” then what sounded like a love poem.

Dan Curley had with him copies of his just-released book Conditional Future Perfect (Wolfson Press) & read the long title poem, a love poem for his wife, with plenty of examples of the conditional future perfect. Peggy LeGee — & her voice — was back with a Halloween piece “The Cat from Hell.” Nancy Klepsch read 2 pieces on themes drawn from Herman Melville, the first, “Fish,” a rant about an ex- who still hates her, then a piece based on Chapter 10, “A Bosom Friend,” from Moby Dick, from which she also read an excerpt of the chapter.

Karen Fabiane’s 2 poems were pieces of free-association about listening, “What I Hear Loose in the Walls” about the heat coming up, & “From the 3rd Floor” after the gallery downstairs is closed. Rene McGovern was back again & read about the joy of being a senior student in literature at the community college, then one for her sister & for Alice Walker “Sisters, the Phone Calls.”

This truly open mic (for poetry + prose) is held on the 2nd Sunday of most months at the Art Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St., Troy, NY, 2:00PM — Free! [Please note that if you are reading this soon after it is posted, the next reading will be on Sunday, December 15, not the usual 2nd Sunday. Bring a couple poems or 5 minutes of prose.