2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, June 12

The poets at the 2nd Sunday open mic are proliferating like, well, mushrooms, here at Collar City Mushrooms in Troy NY, literally on the banks of the Hudson River. The tag-team hosts are Nancy Klepsch & myself (Dan Wilcox).

Darcy Smith came up from the mid-Hudson region to join us for her first time here; she read from her recent collection of poems, River Skin (), first a river poem of childhood memories “Set the Clock Back,” then “Loose Gravel” filled with musical repetitions. Tim Verhaegen was here again, said he was “raised by female vocalists,” read a poem about when he was 7 years old “Listening to the Mamas & Papas, 1967.” Also looking back, Bob Sharkey read 2 related poems about Portland, Maine where he grew up, “Libbytown 1952” (about a local character), & the changes 20 years later “Last Hold Out.”

Laura Ellzey began with a Rube Goldberg description of smiling titled “Snarling Lips,” then a piece titled “The Message” about a drawing class where you drew what you saw when you squinted. Naomi Bindman’s poem “Kintsugi” (about repairing pottery with gold) was inspired by reading a poem by Danusha Laméris, then a poem on aging titled “Senescence.” I read 2 recent poem, one about Allen Ginsberg’s birthday, “June 3, 2022,” the other the 2nd poem I’ve ever written about poet Joe Krausman, “Joe Krausman (II)." 

Cheryl Rice wrote about the fun of “Gardening Again” with a friend’s daughters, then a childhood memory of her sister & her father prompted by a mug. My co-host, Nancy Klepsch, read one of my favorites, “A Queer Horse” from her 2017 book God Must Be A Boogie Man, then a piece playing on the language of pedagogy in the time of school massacres, “Learning Targets.” Avery, who provides us with this space each 2nd Sunday @ 2, read (Surprise!) a mushroom poem, the effusive “The Mycelium Spreads,” then the song-like description “A Single Crow.”

Kate Gillespie also read a bird poem “Pigeons Getting Busy by the Seashore” on Martha’s Vineyard, then one titled “I Have No More Menses to Give.” Guitar players are rare here (i.e. “Poetry + Prose”), but songs have words, some poetry & some prose, so when Desmond opened his guitar case it was all part of the process, he did 2 songs, 1 about a recent separation “13 Boxes.” Carrie read a villanelle titled “All the Things I Have Left Behind,” then a cento composed of lines from the work of Kurt Vonnegut.

Our last performer/reader was Annie, known as a “story-teller” (aren’t we all?) with a ramble about her college honors English program, then she read the charming children’s book Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton. & that was it for this month.

We are here at the Collar City Mushrooms at 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY, on the 2nd Sunday at 2 with Poetry + Prose — join us with your poems, spoken word, prose — you can even buy mushrooms! (the legal kind you cook with).