Caffè Lena Poetry Night, January 5

2022 was beginning with a busy week of poetry open mics. Tonight a lively audience for the featured poet, Suzanne Rancourt, & the open mic. Our host, Carol Graser, started us off right with a poem by the late Diane di Prima (1934 - 2020), “First Snow, Kerhonksen.” 

Caffè Lena has been live-streaming the featured poet during the pandemic, so Suzanne Rancourt took the stage right at 7:00PM & read mostly from her books,  Billboard in the Clouds (Northwestern Univ. Press, 2004) for which she received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award, murmurs at the gate (Unsolicited Press, 2019) & Old Stones, New Roads (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2021). She is of Abenaki/Huron descent, & a veteran of both the US Army & the Marine Corps. On the mic stand she displayed a photo of a young girl, Judith Hand, who was murdered in 1971 in Farmington, ME; her murder was never solved, & Suzanne read a poem for missing indigenous women & children. She read other poems not in her books, including from a manuscript in progress, forthcoming in 2023. You can find the recording of the reading by Suzanne Rancourt on the Caffè Lena YouTube page here: https://youtu.be/SsoIYLkRRjU

The open mic is not live-streamed, & in fact there wasn’t even a mic in an abundance of caution due to the latest surge in positive COVID cases. First up was Rachel Baum who has been reading here regularly, trying out her new poems, tonight one on family history titled “Alterations,” another on death & dying, “Leaving Florida.” Marcella Hammer followed with a fascinating piece titled “The Immortals,” a fantasy of the gods, which she called “autobiographical,” about what’s going to happen. James Niven read a poem titled “The Body Before the Judgment” from a book of poems he has just published.

Elizabeth Threadgill read 2 pieces she said had been published in a literary journal published for the Solstice, her poems titled “Sleep” & “Adrift.” Michael Carroll said it was his 1st time here (i.e., a virgin) read a poem about being a wage slave, “9 to 5,” then a rhyming paean “Scotch Symphony.” I read just one poem, about a tee-shirt exchange with another poet who happened to be in the audience, “Tee-Shirt Poem” (she was surprised).

Lance Le Grys read a poem about how famous poets — & himself — wrote poems, from his book Views from an Outbuilding (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, 2019), then a new poem on a theme of music. He was followed by his daughter Alex Le Grys who read a poem written in high school, “I Can’t Write Love Poems,” which she said was “a stupid title,” then a portrait titled “Isolationist” (interestingly enough I had seen both Lance & Alex read back in December 2019 at the Social Justice Center in Albany, NY).

Jan Tramontano had featured here in December & hung out at open mics here as well, tonight read “At Paradise Nails” from her chapbook of poems The Me I Was With You (Finishing Line Press, 2021), then a poem not yet in a book, “First Snow,” about being back in New York State from Florida. Jeanine Laverty is a regular here, read a piece from 1999, “For Nellis’ Group, Some Afterthoughts” about a reading with Viet Nam War veterans. 

Monique Hedley read a memoir piece titled “Destiny & Destinations.” Rodney Parrott likes being at the end of the list, read from his sociological series “Walmart at 7AM.” Our host Carol Graser brought the evening to a close with a political piece about Trump’s so-called “patriots” titled “Now is the Time.”

This poetry series at the folk music haven Caffè Lena on Phila St. in Saratoga Springs, NY persists on the 1st Wednesday of the month with a featured poet who is live-streamed on YouTube, followed by an open mic by the fine (or not so fine) poets from near & far who can get there, the featured poet goes on at 7:00PM, it’s $5.00 to get in & you have to be vaccinated — wear your mask!