Pine Hollow Arboretum Reading, October 7

Another local open mic rises from the ashes of the pandemic & other catastrophes. The location is now the Pine Hollow Arboretum’s Visitor’s Center in Slingerlands, NY, but the host is still Alan Casline. The featured poet this night was Tom Bonville, but first a bit of the open mic poets on the list, many of whom were slowly emerging from the pandemic isolation.

I was signed up first & read a poem about my experiences in Saratoga Springs, inspired by the restaurant on Phila Street called “Solevo,” as the poem is titled as well, & the seasonal poem “Yom Kippur 4004.”

It was good to see Philomena Moriarty again & to hear her poems, the first “a cautionary tale” written before she broke her leg, “Betrayal of Objects,” then one written in the hospital after she broke her leg “The Soul Appears to Wait.” Alan Casline read a poem by the late founder of the Arboretum, & regular reader at open mics here, Dr. John W. Abbuhl, a piece titled “Art” written 9/24/2011. 

Mark W. O’Brien read entry #100 from his Blog spontaneous/sonnets on Blogspot, then a segment from the historical novel he is writing using newspaper accounts from the Altamont Enterprise at the time.  Nancy Dunlop had copies with her of her new poetry collection, Hospital Poems (Indie Blu(e) Publishing, 2022) & read 2 pieces from it, “Handsome Man” & “Knockout.”

Tom Bonville was the featured reader this night, & he began with a poem about the trees “More Beautiful,” then on to a series of mostly sad poems about love changing just for the sake of changing, about the end of a relationship, of the memories of the beginning, & wondering, perhaps…  Then to a poem titled “The Procedure” about blood drawn for a test, then a related, humorous take contrasting a mechanic’s test of a car battery with a test for cancer. He ended with a a couple of water-themed poems, “The Pull of Water” & “Fishing the River at Troy, 1959.” 

I’m not much for “dead cat poems,” but Tim Verhaegen read one about a cat he had as a child, “Steven,” that was not overly sentimental & explored his emotions from hindsight, then accompanied his reading of his poem “The Geeser” with recorded drum music. Joe Krausman was once described as a “flinty elf,” read a couple pieces with his characteristic humor, “Giving Advice,” &, with a nod to the Greek oracles, “Oh, for a Nurse Editor.”

Paul Amidon has had a collection of his poems recently published by The Troy Book Makers, Relatives and Other Characters; his poems are by turns nostalgic, introspective, & humorous, as were the two he read tonight, “Dance Recital,” & “Revelation” on the affects aging as reminders of the past. Tom Corrado read a poem about a cat, filled with puns, & chess & movie references, “Searching for Bobbie Fisher in 15 Days” (which was the 2nd enjoyable “cat poem” this night).

This is perhaps the first time I’d seen Sam Trumbore sign up for the open mic, ‘though he frequently attends accompanying his wife Philomena Moriarty; he read a thoughtfully written “land acknowledgement,” so necessary & appropriate for this area with its rich Native history, then, in a related vein, read a piece titled “River Invocation.” Our host Alan Casline brought the night to a close with his poems “Mother’s Day Gift” (of mushrooms, in rhyme), another in rhyme “Song of a Game of Shadows” about a chipmunk & an eagle, & an Autumn poem “The Wanderer.”

This new/reborn event is planned as a series, but when still seems to be unsettled. Your best source of the when & where of area poetry events is the calendar on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.