Third Thursday Poetry Night, April 21

At the Social Justice Center — Tonight’s featured poet, David Graham, had been scheduled 3 times in the first month’s of 2020 as the uncertainly of the pandemic spread faster than the virus itself. But here we were, alive & in-person, 1 poem each for the open mic. But first the traditional Invocation of the Muse, tonight the gone poet, former co-editor of Beloit Poetry Journal, Lee Sharkey (1945 - 2020), I read her poem “Cloth” a deceptively simple poem of memory.

Then a bit of the open mic. Jackie Craven, host of Writers Mic on Facebook on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, read from her new chapbook Cyborg Sister (Headmistress Press) about a not-quite-human sister, a poem titled “She Tries to Hide the Oily Scent of Her Maturation.” Tom Bonville read a poem about his father drifting away from him every new day, telling him he loves him. Catherine Dickert was here for the 1st time & read a poem about slipping away from a basement apartment at night to go down to the beach, a quietly descriptive, subtle narrative.

Leslie Gerber made a rare trip to Albany for the open mic read his poem “The Hospital for Permanent Adults,” a grim place to be. Joe Krausman has been a regular here, both pre-pandemic & now in our recovery phase, read his humorous take on getting older “Coming of Age.” Tom Corrado read one of the latest of his hundreds of Screen Dumps, this #621, the arrival of Spring in his characteristically random & unpredictable lines.

David Graham, our featured reader, spent many years in Wisconsin but is now back in New York’s North Country. He read mostly from his latest book The Honey of Earth (Terrapin Books, 2019) & talked about editing (with Tom Montag) Local News: Poetry About Small Towns from which he read Charlie Rossiter’s “Car Hendge.” Then on to his own poems “Ode to Baraboo, Wisconsin,” then a poem about a sign seen while driving the Interstate “How Would Jesus Drive?,” “Vinegar and Fizz” & (an elegy & tribute to his mother). He paused to read “The Gift” from another poet from the small town anthology. Then ended with one last poem from his book, “Most of the Time We Live Through the Night” (a quote from Robert Bly), a good note to end on.

After a short break to take up the collection to help pay the poet, support other poetry events, & support the work of the SJC, we continued on with with the remainder of the open mic list. I read a recent poem for Earth Day about the proliferation of ink-jet cartridges, “2 Dreams.” Austin Houston took us back to the earlier theme & read a piece titled “Death’s Waiting Room.” 

Sylvia Barnard found this unfinished poem in her computer this morning, completed the line, & read it tonight, about remembering a gone friend who helped her buy her first computer, another time watching him from her window. Dana Crawford was another first timer here & he read 2 really small poems including lines from Whitman, & about a visit to the dermatologist. Anthony Bernini was our final poet to read “Beneath the Bridge” a memoir piece about living nearly beneath the Manhattan Bridge, near a market for chickens.

We’ve been back since January, on the third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:00PM sign-up & 7:30 start, with a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us — $5.00 donation. Join us, bring a poem (or other piece of writing, we can't tell where the line breaks are).