Poems -- & musings on the Albany (NY) poetry scene.
"It's not the Truth, but it's pretty darn close."
March 1, 2020
Third Thursday Poetry Night, February 20
Back at the Social Justice Center on this third Thursday, with our featured poet Melody Davis, & community poets signed up on the open mic list. But first to invoke the Muse, tonight the gone poet Ntozake Shange (1948 - 2018), with a reading of her poem “its happenin/but you dont know abt it.”
Don Levy was first up with a new poem “America is Port Authority” about strangers helping him get through the bus station with his cane & luggage, you might say what makes America great now. Kim Henry read an untitled poem about being born “ass first” as a metaphor for her life of denial, & healing. D. Alexander Holiday did a poem from memory by poet Dudley Randall “Ballad of Birmingham” to represent, as he said, for Black History Month. Amanda Pelletier read a poem about the guy she was on a date with some years ago right here at the SJC Third Thursday Poetry Night, an end of relationship poem, using the TV series Family Guy as a trope.
A new voice here, Jim, read a work-in-progress without a title, a political piece on the state of today. Joe Krausman commented on friends, unbidden, helping him out, as in Don’s poem, then read a poem inspired by a religious tract left on his car “If Not Today When.” I was the last of the open mic poets & read a new poem written on a recent retreat in Gloucester about the cottage where I stayed titled “Hanging Over the Edge.”
Tonight’s featured poet, Melody Davis, who had been a feature here a few years ago, was back to read from her new book, Ghost Writer (Broadstone Books, 2019), from a time of crises with her mother suffering & dying with Alzheimer’s disease, in 3 voices: her mother, herself, & herself as an 8 year-old girl. She began with a couple pieces with the 8 year-old, “We’ve been all over this,” “We got her where we want her,” then “Before I die” (where her mother thinks she’s been robbed but is wearing the "missing" watch). A short syllabic poem “What enters their space when neurons die?” was basically a list, & the ironical, humorous “Mom is sounding like my ex.” “Breath” is a meditation on remembering, & then 8 year old makes an appearance again in “We don’t get to choose whom we love” & “Rich.” Her father makes an appearance in a couple of memories of being in a bar & her parents smoking, “My father’s singing,” & “Smoke and mirrors.” “For-Cynthia” is based on a childhood memory of her mother mis-pronouncing the name of the plant. Then on to a selection of haiku from an earlier book, a collaboration with artist Harold Lohner, One Ground Beetle (Bad Cat Press, 2017). She returned to Ghost Writer to end with the poem “Ties” a walking meditation along the rail trail.
Third Thursdays continue through 2020 with poetry at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:30PM with a featured poet & an open mic for others. Your generous contribution supports poetry events in the area & the work of the Social Justice Center.
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