Poets Speak Loud!, October 28

& tonight we/they sure did, in the back room of McGeary’s with our host Mary Panza keeping order.

First up was a new name & voice, Dave Treacy, with a couple poems, the first in rhyme, “My Friend Setting Sun,” the second untitled, both with short phrases, read slowly. Mark W. O’Brien read one of his Haibun, this not in his book, “In Between,” about his teenage jobs & an encounter in his blue suede cowboy boots with a dog who won’t let go. Sylvia Barnard read a just-written poem about the Grandma Moses Room at the Bennington Museum, then, from her book Trees, “Down by the Riverside.” If you hadn’t heard, Julie Lomoe survived a sub-dural hematoma last year at this time & tonight read her latest poem just written last night after midnight about “Halloween Lights.” Carrie C. also read some recent poems, “I Banish Thee” on alcohol addiction, & “I’m Tired” (on all the pressures on her). Don Levy read his poems from his phone, the poem about a couple of women with their Trump 2020 banner “At the Church Fair,” & “At the Clark” about people taking pictures of the paintings at the museum.

The featured poet, Christopher Burton, who easily lived up to the name of this series, once read here at McGeary’s in the open mic, so it was enlightening to hear him read a variety of pieces. His first was a litany of labels of America’s dark history from Manifest Destiny to Jim Crow  without the details that would turn the list into poetry. Others, all untitled as far as I could tell, ranged from wondering about the future, to a screaming rant on changes in laws relating to bail, & more gently to a love poem & one on the joys of beauty & love for what he said were his "Muslim Sufi friends." Another piece was a memoir of his 12-year old self causing trouble, then on to the metaphor of America as a sex-abused child. Most pieces were read from pages or his phone, but a couple were done from memory, or free-styled, it was hard to tell which. It helps to get your message across, whether or not it is a good poem, when you are loud & big, no subtlety here.

Then on to the rest of the open mic, with Tom Riley who needs to be here more often, with a poem about guys getting older “PSA,” the an unfinished piece about hands battling each other, suffering cuts, damages. Douglas Holiday read OPP (other people’s poems) with Etheridge Knight’s poem about a breakup “Feeling Fucked Up,” then, referencing his own poem “If I Were An Artist,” a poem by another poet. Joan Geitz read a couple poems based in Cairo, NY, the first titled “A Ghost Town,” the next about a neighbor who helps out others, then a poem about a random smile just written at the recent Lark Fest.

Glenn Cassidy came back with a piece done from memory about things & dreams contained in a “Satchel,” then one written 10 years ago titled “The Call of the Wild” about the former Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford who recently announced his intention to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in the 2020 election. Sally Rhoades read a descriptive piece “October in New York,” then one in tribute to her beloved Aunt Polly “Riding Shotgun.” My poem was an old Halloween piece written for a prompt & based on Alan Catlin’s Killer Cocktails “Zombie Gourd.”   

Joe Krausman, needing light from Mary Panza, brought us all home with a hilarious poem about metaphor & a poet at a baseball game, “Kill the Umpire,” then one in tribute to a former teacher at the Iowa creative writing program.

Poets Speak Loud! happens on the last Monday of most months at McGeary’s on Clinton Square, starting about 8:00PM, with a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us.