Third Thursday Poetry Night, June 16

The poets keep showing up each third Thursday at the Social Justice Center & that’s a good thing since that’s why we are here. The featured poet this night was Catherine Arra, who had actually read in the SJC previously, but she was reading in Poets in the Park in July 2016 & it rained so we retreated to the SJC. 

Tonight, we started with some of the open mic poets to get us warmed up. The first up was Catherine Dickert, who has been here before; tonight, she read a tale about a couch in old house, its life up to a student asleep in it after it had been left on the sidewalk. Local political activist Fred Pfeiffer was here & read for the first time ever — a poetry virgin! — pieces written at age 17 (daisies in Spring), then at 71 (about the space we occupy, until we die). Joe Krausman is definitely not a poetry virgin, recited “Scenes Passing,” from memory, poems & things & life. Tom Bonville squeezed in 2 pieces, “The Pictures in Each Frame” about the photos & memories, & an “Old Tree” like an old artist. Joan Goodman has snuck back into the poetry scene in recent months, gladly, to read a sestina, “Yes,” with its repetitions on love.

Catherine Arra was the night’s feature & said she got to see a lot of Albany getting lost getting here, but here she was. She introduced her new book, currently accepted for publication, Solitude, Tarot & the Corona Blues, in 2 sections, the first about being in lockdown, the second, persona poems in the voices of the figures of the Major Arcana of the Tarot Deck. She began with “Exodus” into the desert of quarantine, then “Beauty in the Time of Corona” with images of Florida, “Grief, a Hangover,” “Cooking in the Time of Corona” friends getting together, a lush menu, & “Corona Blues” hitting bottom, then a seque into the 2nd part. From the Tarot section, she started with “The Devil” in his voice, then to the opposite card, “The Lovers,” “Death” a card of change, & ended with the last card in the deck, “The World.” Her poems are like stories, conversations, grammatical, stories, a pleasant time spent with an imaginative, creative poet. I look forward to adding Solitude, Tarot & the Corona Blues to my collection of Catherine Arra’s books.

After a break we returned to the open mic, with your host, me, as the first reader, with my newest Joe Krausman poem “Joe Krausman II” (my first one titled “Joe Krausman” was written in 1989). Sylvia Barnard is a faithful reader here each third Thursday, tonight read the recent poem “Black Bear in at the Park.” Elaine Kenyon reads frequently at the Caffè Lena open mic & tonight was here to read a poem in 3 parts responding to a prompt “chair” mixing childhood memories & a Ted-talk. 

I first heard Josh the Poet, as he signed up, at the new poetry venue at Lark Hall on the first Monday of the month, run by Albany poetry impresario R.M. Engelhardt; tonight Josh was here to perform his poem from memory a new poem titled “Being Black” being part of a good nation. Tina Barry was the final poet of the night, a former-feature here & part of the entourage to Albany to support the featured poet; tonight read a memoir poem of going to New York City as a child with her mother to the Museum of Modern Art then looking for the lilies today.

There are always wonderful poems read on the third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, at 7:30 — a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us. Join us.