Invocation of the Muse, June 6

This reading series hosted by the venerable R.M. Engelhardt has seemed to have settled in to the new entertainment venue Lark Hall, despite persistent issues with lighting & sound, strange for a venue that regularly hosts music groups. This night’s start was delayed by some diddling with the sound by a cluster of guys in black with caps, who eventually got it loud. But I do have to say that since I was a kid I’ve never enjoyed sitting on church pews.

Anyways, once we got going, Rob invoked the Muse by reading “In the Beginning” by Dylan Thomas, then on to the open mic. First up was “NY Rehd” whom I recognized as a veteran of the early days of the poetry open mics at the QE2 on Central Ave., Marlon Anderson, who asked me to video his reading on his phone, which I did. Which means I was not able to take any photos of him reading, nor was I able to take any notes about his poem. This situation was repeated with the next reader, Maurice, who also asked me to use his phone to video his reading, which means that I also was not able to photograph his performance nor have any idea what he read. Worse yet the settings on his phone were such that the image was over-exposed & I was not familiar enough with his brand of phone to even attempt to adjust the settings. The lesson I learned that night was to stop being a nice guy, & stick to what I usually do at readings, take notes & take pictures.

The next reader Patrick Williams had no such delusions of grandeur & simply read his poems, one titled “Gift from God,” the other “Perseverance” was a villanelle, & I could enjoy his reading without being distracted. 

The featured poet tonight was Dmitry Wild, singer/songwriter at Dmitry Wild & the Spells, as well as other groups. Rob has been finding his featured readers from among the ranks of rockers from the region & beyond. Wild had planned to present his poems with a group of musicians Houses in Motion, but there were issues with the sound setup & so he just read, mostly from his book Rebel Eyes, starting with “Everyone is Working for the Man” with the Mona Lisa somehow slipped in there. Other pieces were titled “This Kind of Love,” & the NYC piece “Dinosaur ATM.” Then on to “Fear Mantra” with the provocative line, “… God is in the air we breathe …” (which as a matter of fact, so are my farts!). He ended with “Venus,” which he tried to sing, & repeated the lines he liked, most of which were sampled from songs by the Velvet Underground — I like them too!

Photographers Lief Zurmuhlen (left), & Thom Francis

Joshua Wald (aka Josh the Poet) was back here again, & he began with a piece about how the world is at war every day for our souls, then the wonderfully self-affirming “Me Just Being Me,” then “Dream Chaser.” Colin Lacy’s pieces were chunks of heavy pondering & all untitled. Travis Hance read a strangely nostalgic piece “Lazarus’ Chamber” about returning to his parent’s living room where he claims he had “laid 5 women.” 

Our noir/goth host, R.M. Engelhardt, read from his new book from Dead Man’s Press Ink Of Spirit, Ash & Bone Poems Parables (or, Echoes of a Dead World: Poems, Parables for Another Lost Century); he read “Mythical” which was familiar Engelhardt territory with name-dropping poets getting drunk in America, telling stories of the gods, & also read “Too Many Cigarettes Can Cause a Revolution;” you can find it on Amazon Books where it is classified as “Mysticism” & “Inspirational & Religious Poetry.”

I followed with a recent piece of prose poetry “Last Night’s Dream” then from my series of true stories of the Trump era, What Makes America Great, #17 about the March 2018 “March for Our Lives” rally in Albany. Last up was one of the great photographers of Albany, Lief Zurmuhlen, who recited a series of sexy, humorous Limericks. & that was that.

Invocation of the Muse takes place (usually, unless it falls on a holiday) on the 1st Monday of the month, 7:30PM sign-up, 8:00PM start, $5.00 admission, at Lark Hall, on the corner of Lark St. & Hudson Ave., (enter on Hudson Ave.), Albany, NY, open mic for poets.