Third Thursday Poetry Night, February 17

So good to be back here again, tonight’s featured poet was the steadfast Therese Broderick, & of course we had the open mic with, you guessed it, One Poem! I have a long list of poets who have left us since we were last here in early 2020, but each night there can only be 1 Muse — tonight it was the great American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919 - 2021), who visited Albany in September 1994, a hero-poet & inspiration to many of us, tonight I read his poem “Baseball Canto.”

Speaking of steadfast, Sylvia Barnard made it over from Willett Street (wisely via Uber) to read a descripitive piece about the tall black trees in Washington Park, a memory of a gone friend. Equally steadfast in the poetry scene Joe Krausman read “Feedback” about how we judge ourselves, & how others do it too. 

Tim Verhaegen read an intense tribute to an emotional friendship with a woman “Saturdays With Angie, 1984 - 1993” contrasting it with his relationships with men. Frank Robinson’s new poem was specially written for this night, “The Subway Couple,” a memory from years ago of a couple quietly, gently holding hands, that still affects him to this day, a true Valentine poem to my thinking.

Therese Broderick was this night’s featured poet. She said that she has been doing poetry for 22 years & talked about how her poetry has changed over the years. She read from her new self-published, hand-sewn chapbook Crosswinds, beginning with “Backyard Crows” written last year, imitating the conversations of the birds, then on to poems about pencils, tropical storm Henri, trees, working in her yard, a trucker exercising at a Thruway rest stop, dropping off a student at college during the pandemic, & one, Buddhist-inspired, about a cat. For the poem “Ghazal” she invited her husband Frank Robinson to join in, then finished with “Sapphics after the Winds of Mars” inspired by the recorded sounds of the wind on the planet Mars. You can arrange to obtain a copy of Crosswinds by emailing Therese at brdrck@gmail.com

After a short break, during which many copies of Therese's book were scarfed up, we continued with the rest of the open mic poets. I read this year’s poem written on my birthday, “The Gifts.” Tom Bonville was back out to read a tender poem, “Welcome Old Age,” an aged couple showering each other. Edie Abrams was also back out, talked about reading several newspapers online, getting ads from Wirecutter, that inspired her hilarious poem “Get a Good Ice-cube Tray it Will Change Your Life” juxtaposed with headlines from the New York Times & thoughts of her mother.

Melissa Anderson was here for the 1st time looking for poetry, & it turns out her grandmother was the poet Catherine Anderson, who many of us in the room knew, then read a tender tribute “In Memory of Catherine Anderson with Thanks to Billy Collins,” written 3 years after her grandmother died. Joan Geitz decided at the last minute to read a poem on death by Anne Alexander Bingham titled “It is Enough.” 

We are back, in-person, on the third Thursday of the month, 7:00PM sign-up/7:30PM start, at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, with a featured poet & an open mic before & after the feature — $5 donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center. Join us!