Third Thursday Poetry Night, October 20

The rehab/renovations are ongoing at the Social Justice Center so it is somewhat like having an open mic at a construction site. But that hasn’t stopped the poets from showing up, 13 read in the open mic, & the featured poet was Megeen R. Mulholland. But first I invoked the Muse, tonight the recently gone Southwest poet & activist Dorothy Alexander, I read her poem “Love in Old Age” from her collection Leaving My Father’s House: Poetry & Prose (Chapeau Rouge Editions, Cheyenne, OK, 2017).

Sylvia Barnard managed to secure the 1st spot on the sign-up sheet & read a poem in 2 parts about looking out the windows of her apartment onto Washington Park, the 1st part written last Winter, the 2nd part written recently. Valerie Temple returned again to read from her cellphone “A Friend You Doubt Means an Enemy Is About” about being abandoned by a “friend” while traveling in Italy. Josh-the-Poet was also back, read a new piece about treating people with mental impairments with kindness.

Liz Grisaru, whom I’d seen reading with her poetry group at the Writers Institute Book Fair recently, was here for the first time; she decided on a meditative piece in rhyme. E.R. Vogel was also here for the 1st time & and he read a poem from his self-published chapbook Love Poems & Other Stuff.

Our featured poet this night was Megeen R. Mulholland, whom I’ve seen a lot of recently because she had a poem in the recent art & poetry exhibit Poetic License - Albany & was one of the readers at the event in September. She has a new book of poems out from Finishing Line Press Crossing the Divide, which I had the pleasure to read in manuscript. She earned her PhD. from the University at Albany & teaches at Hudson Valley Community College.

She read mostly from Crossing the Divide with a couple poems at the end from her earlier book, Orbit, also from Finishing Line Press. First she set up on the construction scaffolding a small gallery of photos of her parents from the 1950s. Her father, who died when Megeen was just 6 months old, was a train enthusiast & photographer, the book includes some of his photos. “Survivors” was a poem about trains, & his family, & the poet sorting through the slides; the title poem combines a story of a journey he took by train & the slides he took; when her father died he was only 45, as she tells in the poem, “Heart Failure.” Not ever knowing her father except from stories her family told, she imagines him cutting the lawn in the poem “Hey Dad;” from a photo taken of her father she imagines him meeting Albert Einstein (“Top This”); & the sound of a plow outside her house makes her think of her father working on & photographing such equipment. 

She ended with a trio of poems about her mother, who was left with 8 children at age 42 when her father died. “Encircled by the Engraved Band” is about her mother's ring that the poet now wears, remembering it on her mother’s hand. From Orbit she read about her mother preparing a holiday meal (“Measuring the ingredients”), & ended with the subtle music of the poem “Well Well Well” about how the memory of her mother becomes a model for her bringing up her own daughters. This reading was much like sitting around a holiday dinner table, listening to family stories, as indeed it was.

After the break I jumped in to read a new poem that had been commissioned by the Writers Institute on the theme of “collaboration” for an event to honor the Opalkas on the 20th anniversary of the gallery by the same name; my poem was a brief history of “3 Guys from Albany.” Melissa Anderson was back again, her Summer job with the Park Playhouse inspired a poem “On Stage They Are Singing About Love” during a downpour.

Pippa Bartolotti mentioned her collection of short stories, in what is called cli-fi, title Black Felt Fedora then read a poem titled “The Dervish.” Sally Rhoades also read a poem by Dorothy Alexander “Carrying Condoms to the Revolution” from the previously cited book, a humorous account of bringing 40 pounds of condoms to Nicaragua. Tom Bonville, who had recently been the featured poet at the re-started series at the Pine Hollow Arboretum, read “Never” about an elderly couple taking their daily walk past his house.

Edie Abrams joined us once again read a poem titled “Coyote Nights” a tale about being “beguiled” by their cries. Joe Krausman used his magnifying for assistance in reading “Feedback” about one’s possible reactions to other’s comments on your work. Joan Goodman was the final reader for the night, her poem a meditation on “Finding a Place to Write” at night.

Join us on the Third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY at 7:30PM for a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us — $5.00 suggested donation.