All Genre Open Mic out of Bennington, December 12

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, started, as he always does, with his introductory rant/chant — “the mic is open” — then on to 2 rounds each, 1 poem each round.

Charlie put me 1st on the list & in the 1st round I read a poem, titled “Writing Crows,” that had been selected for the Poetic License exhibit in Kingston, NY in 2021 & that inspired a painting by the artist S.L. Rika. In the 2nd round, inspired by Bill’s 1st round series of Haiku & haibun, I read a haibun titled “Last Train to Clarksville” mashing up the 1966 hit by the Monkees, & a response to a photo by Mark O’Brien on his Blog about places in Clarksville, NY, 36 Views of Ononta'kahrhon. 

Francesa Sidoti read what she said was a holiday card to this group of poets a poem titled “The Snowman & the Cat;” then in her 2nd round part 2 of th holiday card to the group, memories drifting through old TV stories, memories of Marblehead.

Sheryll Bedingfield, in her 1st round, read an older, unfinished piece, titled “December” about sitting on a stone outside among the birds; in her 2nd rounds she read “Winter Reflection” inspired by her grandmother telling ghost stories.

Bill Thwing read a haibun “Poetry Powerhouse” written in Bennington VT, short prose sections with a series of Haiku on aging; for the 2nd round he got out his guitar to sing a song he had just written, to the tune of “16 Tons,” about a visit from Santa, & the magic of making toys.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read, in a fit of nostalgia, a stark description of the ocean, “Off season;” then in round 2, a poem titled “Reflecting on Robert Bly” with quotes from Bly’s poems.

Jim Madigan read a piece about an anti-war vigil for bombed hospitals & the human victims “At the Plaza;” later in his 2nd round he read an old poem never finished, remembering a friend remembering an ex-lover, “All But One.”  

Tom Nicotera read a memoir from childhood, “The Legs thru the Ceiling Incident,” about playing in the attic with a friend; then in his 2nd round he read one of his hiking poems, a portrait of a deer, a moment in time in “Nathan Hale State Forest.”

Naomi Bindman announced some good news before we started, that she had her memoir about her daughter that she has often read from here & at other open mics, accepted by an agent, the very agent she hoped would take her on — Congratulations! She read from the new memoir about her mother, who was killed by an intruder when Naomi, a section written yesterday, “The World is a Picture,” one excerpt in each round,  about the art in their NYC home with descriptions of some of the paintings, as a letter to her mother from her 7 year self.

& so it goes, broadcast (if that is the word) over Zoom by Charlie from Bennington, Vermont. If you would like to join this monthly open mic on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, email Charlie at charliemrossiter@gmail.com & he will send you the link.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, December 10

I was on my own this time as the Host, but it was easy to handle with just 4, including me, on the sign-up sheet. It was a casual, collegial gathering, exchanging not only poems but elephant jokes (I won’t repeat them).

Rhonda Rosenheck began with a piece from a workshop on metaphor, “Morse Code,” a cup of warm tea; her second piece was a personal memoir about a deathwatch for a fiancé, “Counting Blessings on My Fingers.”

One has to pay close attention when David Gonsalves gets up to read, his poems tend to go by fast — his first piece was about the sun & word play “Candle & Calendar,” his next piece was a list poem.

I read a poem from a few years ago that was part of the Poetic License project at the Art Society of Kingston, “Writing Crows” that inspired a painting by S.L. Ritka, then, holiday tradition, I read Enid Dame’s (1943 - 2003) cross-cultural “Holiday Poem.”

We are here at Collar City Mushrooms because Avery Stempel makes the space available each 2nd Sunday; his first poem began with a quote from the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982), the poem composed of quotes from a CNN report on robots, with the refrain “they live;” then another piece composed of words from someone else’s mouth, this from the things Avery’s Dad’s cousin said, “No Peaches.”

Put 4 poets in a room & it’s better than football (in my opinion).

2nd Sunday @ 2 takes place at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy — an open mic for poetry + prose — & you can buy mushrooms to take home.

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic, December 6

Back for the poetry at Caffe Lena, especially for the featured poet, James Schlett, but also for the wonderful experience of hearing & seeing the poets of the North Country (& beyond). Our 20-year host, Carol Graser, started us off with a poem by titled “Bats” by Lynn Unger, the flying kind, not baseball. 

Then on to the featured poet James Schlett, whose reading was live-streamed (preserved for all-time on YouTube). James is not only a veteran of the poetry open scene in Saratoga Springs & Albany, but also the historian & author of A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks (Cornell University Press, 2015). Tonight he read from his 1st book of poems, children & bubbles: Haiku on Fatherhood (Red Moon Press, 2023), & discussed his Haiku practice. You can find a video of his reading at the Caffe Lena YouTube site.

Luna Brooke was here for the 1st time, read a poem titled “Dream” that she wrote at age 18, a defiant manifesto & love poem, then read her version written 10 year later, re-titled “New Dream,” a re-write using her previous lines & phrases, a stunning exercise in re-evaluation & re-writing. David Graham said he has been reading Pablo Neruda’s The Book of Questions, read his answer, “A Charm that Might Work,” to Neruda’s question about November; then read another poem “Elegy for My Father.”

Rumara Jewett read her prose poem, “Christmas,” a memoir of her grandmother’s balsam fir with real candles. Gail, who had first read here for the 20th anniversary celebration, read this night a poem asking “Whom Am I?” then one about the glory & solace of music, “Unfolding My Potential.” Melissa Anderson’s poem titled “Four Years Later I Return to the Scene of the Crime,” about blooming as a young woman, seeing the ghost of who she once was in the Bronx, a poem on changing, from memories on memory.

At that point Carol called for a break, & when we returned she read a poem of memory, “On the 6th Floor of the VA Medical Center.” Leslie Sittner read a poem about her dog being happy to go for walk, “The Joy Place.” Then it was my turn to read & in response to James’ reading of Haiku, I read my linked pieces, “Buddhist Haiku” then my commentary on the form, “The Haiku Haiku.”

Elaine Kenyon, who had read yesterday in Albany at the Poetic License - Albany exhibit, moved me by reading the opening poem, ”It’s not about us…” from the book-length poem Divine Madness (Marsh Hawk Press, 2012) by Paul Pines (1941 - 2018), who had read here at Caffè Lena; later Elaine explained to me that she had been a student of Paul’s in 1997 at SUNY Adirondack & he had encouraged her to write poems, to become the poet she is today.

I hadn’t seen R.A. (Ron) Pavoldi reading in some time; his poem tonight was “FR 232” (Fire Road) a descriptive piece of Maine, & of a gone lobsterman. E.R. Vogel read a poem “to the pretty bartender down the street” that began “I want to write poems about your tattoos…” 

Justin Mitchell read a Haiku that led into “Crystal Castles” a poem with a Xmas witch, then a tropical description “Oh Those Flowers.”

Carol told the story of a time a number of years ago that a poet did a tedious performance piece in which he smashed a TV, which was plugged in at the time. James Schlett was there that night & eventually stopped the destruction by yelling out, “That’s enough — we GET IT!” — which earned James the nickname “the enforcer.”

Rodney Parrott began with a poem about seagulls flying into the wind in Oregon, which is also done by seagulls here on the Atlantic coast, then a long, discursive piece on what the poem could be. Joanne Cronin finished out the night with a piece titled “Lace,” then one about a tapestry at The Cloisters Museum, “The Unicorn Crossing the Stream.

This long-running open mic, always with a featured poet (or 2), continues on into its 2nd 20 years, each 1st Wednesday of the month at the historic Caffè Lena, 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs, NY starting at 7:00PM, $5.00 — bring a couple poems for the open mic! 

 

Poetic License Reading/Open Mic, December 5

Thomasa Nielsen - "Slipping on a Note"

The Poetic License — Albany exhibit has moved from its month-long exhibition at The Fish Market in Troy to the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany & this reading was held to bless the new location by some of the poets whose poems are exhibited with the visual art they inspired. As I do at the Third Thursday Poetry Night, I invoked the Muse, tonight Noah Kucij, with 2 poems in the exhibit; I read “Your Photos A Year Ago This Week” which inspired Thom Francis’ photo “Spinning Wheel.” Noah died suddenly in April before he knew he would be part of Poetic License - Albany.

Tom Bonville joined as an open mic poet. While he did not have a poem in the show, he does regularly attend open mics in the area. The pieces he read were titled “Going, Going, Gone,” “Faith,” & “I Want to Be.”

Elaine Kenyon had submitted to the 2022 Poetic License event, but this year her poem “The Peripatetic” inspired art from Tess Lecuyer titled “the peripatetic eye.” This night Elaine read that poem as well as “The Misophoniac,” & an ekphrastic poem “Motherhood Blood-Letting.”

Brian Liston has also participated both years in Poetic License - Albany; this year it was his word-list poem “Struggle” that inspired Sven Willets to create his painting “Conquering Worm;” Brian also read a poem dedicated to Philip X. Levine of the Woodstock Poetry Society “The Role We Play” a tribute to those who have come before us, & one titled  “Internalization.”

I was one of the judges of the poetry submitted & so do not have any of my poems in the exhibit; instead I read my poem “Writing Crows” that had been in the Arts Society of Kingston Poetic License in 2021 & inspired the painter S.L. Rika to create “The Crow Flies.” I also read the short poem “My Matisse” inspired by a painting by Thomasa Nielsen from an exhibit at the UAG Gallery on Lark St. many years ago.

Don Maurer read his poem in 3 parts, “Unnatural Acts,” that inspired the painting by Phil Palmieri titled “Lyme & Corona;” then read a coupe other pieces, “Bruised Fruit,” & the song lyric, “How a Robin Learns the Facts of Life.”

Kathleen Anne Smith read “To Create a Summer it Takes” (from her book Let the Stones Grow Soft, The Troy Book Makers, 2023) that inspired the painting “Beach Cottage Summer” by Maureen Kelly; she also read “Why I Write About My Mother” which is also in her book.

Tom Corrado repeated his feat from last year’s Poetic License - Albany & has 2 poems in this year’s show, “Woman XXXIX,” that inspired a painting by Ann Womack titled “Let’s Ride,” & “Woman XVII,” that inspired Thomasa Nielsen’s “Slipping on a Note.” Tom quoted the American abstract painter, Agnes Martin (1912 - 2004), to the effect that she was happy to have her art leave her studio. Tom also read the poems “Woman XXXVII” & “Woman XL,” all the poems from his chapbook 50 Woman (swimming in happenstance press, 2023) copies of which he gave out to the audience.

You can check out the poems & visual art in Poetic License - Albany at the website. 

If you are reading this Blog soon after it was posted, & it is still 2023, you can find the poems & their accompanying art work in the Gallery at Honest Weight Food Co-op, 100 Watervliet Ave., Albany, NY. Visit the Hudson Valley Writers Guild website for listings of local & regional literary events, calls for entries (including future Poetic License calls), & much more.

Invocation —, December 4

It’s back! with a revised name. Formerly Invocation of the Muse, this poetry open mic was on hiatus since earlier this year as renovations were taken place at Lark Hall, including the opening of the new bar/cafe Eleven, so I guess this series got a name renovation as well. It’s a great location — right on Lark St. in Albany, on the corner of Hudson — no TVs needed, one can sit at the bar & watch the passing scene through the full-length glass windows.

The host was the same, R.M. Engelhardt. The open mic was held right in the bar area, which wasn’t a bad idea since it was a Monday night & the open mic is what brought in the business. But it was decidedly low-tech — no sound equipment & no music stand. Over all the years he has run open mics in the area Rob has yet to acquire the accoutrements of a poetry open mic host.

Rob started off the readings with a tongue-in-cheek poem done up as a radio or TV ad, “Is Poetry Right for You.” He then introduced the co-host in-training, Sam Maurice, who has been a regular here for the poetry at Lark Hall, to introduce the first reader on the list, Vanessa Bilanceri, who read a couple of (apparently) untitled pieces, the first an inspirational piece urging women to become a goddess, the other describing the “Autumn gold.” My 2 poems were about cafes, one old, “Café Tabac” (which was in NYC), the other recent & local, i.e. Dunkin Donuts “Café Society.”

Pat Williams was featured in November 2022 at Invocation of the Muse, he was back tonight in the open mic to read a poem about the Mohawk River, “Down by the River,” & another out in nature, “Go Take a Hike.” Josh the Poet said he has written a lot of love poems, tonight he read a new one, “Winter Love.” Josh has a quiet voice so tonight without an amp it was difficult to hear him over the low, & persistent, hum of a compressor.

Our co-host in-training, Sam Maurice, read the title poem from his recently published Vibrant Sounds, Colors in Motion: Fragments, Prose, & Select Poems (as S.L Maurice) from Deadman’s Press Ink (of which he is a co-editor), then another poem was a description of a car crashing into a fire hydrant & it’s subsequent plumbing problem. He was followed by the other co-host, R.M. Engelhardt who read 2 new poems on the exalted role of poets, his favorite topic, “A Raker of Dust A Rattler of Bones,” then another with an epigraph by poet Edmond Jabès, “200,000 Poems.”

The ever-stylish Marlon Anderson, a veteran of the early days of poetry poetry open mics at the QE2, signed up to read as “King Rehd” 2 short pieces, “Masterpiece” (i.e. Madonna), & an untitled poem on “the god of peace.” Ruthie Martin began with a brave piece, one might say a confession, on her struggle with addictions, & that she got help, & capped that off with a short inspirational rhyme.

Allie Middleton read 2 poems from her 2020 book, A Wayfinder’s Wanderings: A First Collection of Poems, “Thresholds of Blue Timelessness” & “Love’s bold container;” she is also the co-author, with Amy Wheeler, of Yoga Radicals: A Curated Set of Inspiring Stories from Pioneers in the Field.

Barry Goldman lost his poetry virginity back in 2008 at the Third Thursday Poetry Night, was out of the area for many years, but joined us tonight as a last-minute sign-up to read a haibun about seeing bras in a dryer (which women consultants tell me that is not the way to dry bras). Shaya Bach was also a late sign-up, & neither co-host apparently had apprised him of the 2-poem rule so he read 3 pieces: “Out the Window of a Midnight Train” (what it says), “Last Rites of a Wasp Squeezed Thru a Hole in the Screen,” & “TV News at the Dollar Store.”

Strangely, co-host Sam Maurice was back to read 2 more poems; now, as a open mic host, I insert myself wherever I feel I want into the sign-up list, but I have never taken advantage of my position & read more poems than anyone else — perhaps in his excitement as a new co-host he forgot he had already read, & I guess that can be forgiven.

This reading series is back on the first Monday of (most) months at The Eleven at Lark Hall, 351 Hudson Ave., Albany, NY, the corner of Hudson Ave. & Lark St. — 7:30PM sign-up/8:00PM start, $5.00 (note: some folks said they had paid online thru Eventbrite), I paid when Rob passed the customary hat.

Visual Poetry: Poetry in Performance, November 28

This was an event planned in conjunction with an exhibit at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy titled Visual Poetry: New Vistas. The exhibit is up from November 13 to December 20, curated by Willie Marlowe, Joseph Mastroianni, & Bella Burnett, with work by Drea LaRose, Kelsey Renko, Kim Tateo, Laura Frare, Marisa Cavanaugh, Mary Kathryn Jablonski, Willie Marlowe & Yeachin Tsai.

The title of this night's event was a bit of a misnomer. While the poetry was exemplary & varied in style & presentation, & some of the poets used videos as part of their readings, it lacked the kind of presentations usually associated with “performance poetry” — dramatic, even histrionic presentations, music, costumes, etc. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining, albeit long, evening of poetry & videos.

The readers were all local/regional poets. The announced headliner, the Philadelphia-based “experimental poet,” CA Conrad had transportation problems & didn’t make it to Troy.

The host was Troy poet Nancy Klepsch who debuted a short video of her poem “god must be a boogie man,” the title poem of her 2017 poetry chapbook.

The first piece was the 30-minute video/poem chapbook, Compass, by poet Mary Kathryn Jablonski & filmmaker Laura Frare, a compilation of 9 separate pieces, weaving together video images, music & the Jablonski’s poems. The title piece, Compass, won an award in the Experiment Short Film category at this year’s Writers Institute Film Festival.

Jill Crammond is a long-time participant in the local poetry reading/open mic scene; she said that she started writing her poems as a “single-Mom,” but now that her children are grown up she doesn’t know what she is. She began with a seasonal poem from the 2022 Poetic License - Albany exhibit of poems & ekphrastic art, “October Sonnet,” then on to a cluster of poems from her recently published chapbook, Handbook for Unwell Mothers (Finishing Line Press, 2023), including a couple of my favorites, “On Forbidding Certain Words at the Dinner Table,” & “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Home” with its nod to Wallace Stevens. Then to a cluster of poems about the death of her father, ending with one titled “On Learning There is No Word Like ‘Widow’ for the Daughter of a Dead Man.”

I noted as the readings began that there was no mic stand, that the readers had to hold the microphone while awkwardly turning the pages of their books or manuscript, or other wise scrolling on their lap-top or phone. Perhaps there is a high-roller out there who would like to purchase a mic stand for any such future events at the Arts Center.

Shira Dentz began her reading with her own version of a video poem, then read from her laptop what she called "newer poems" about the environment. Most of the poems were quite short  descriptive ponderings, such as a piece about trees & leaves titled “Silk Confetti,” another titled “Sparks,” & one titled “Why Part 2” a colorful description of -- what? More of what I expected from her opening descriptions was “Small Things” about micro-plastics. She also read from a collection titled Sisyphusina (PANK, 2020), the title a female version of the Greek figure Sisyphus; the book is described on the publisher’s page as “a cross-genre collection of prose, poetry, visual art, and improvisatory music, centered on female aging” which did not come across in the reading. She ended with a longer piece built on the common expressions she had been hearing "At the End of the Day.”

Philip Good dedicated his reading to the memory of his partner, Bernadette Mayer (1945 - 2022), & read a couple pieces he had done in collaboration with Bernadette, “Don’t forget organic salt…” & “Carnavale” (which I think may have been in the 2022 New Directions book by Bernadette Milkweed Smithereens). Then on to a series of seasonal poems, starting in March, discursive, descriptive pieces, sometimes with cultural/social commentary (such as one about Maine, “Looks Just Like a Postcard”), others like automatic writing commenting on the writing itself. Then there was the funny & all-to-true “Things to Do in East Nassau,” which if you have ever been there you can guess.

Matthew Klane has run a variety of reading series in the Capital District over the years, most recently Salon Salvage in Troy in which he brings in young, experimental writers from near & far. Tonight he read from HIST (Calamari) described as “a graphic novel,” or a “text-image blockbuster.” He read 5 of the 10 short chapters, with images projected on the screen, being the closest to the advertised “poetry in performance.” The images, which were done by the “interdisciplinary poet” James Belflower, were collaged, looking quite 19th century, of shipwrecks, monsters, murders, hauntings signifying — what? The text was equally collaged in fractured phrases, while Matthew’s deep, sonorous reading voice made it all sound so serious.

Sarah Wyman was the only reader I had not heard or seen previously & her work was a pleasant surprise. She read largely  from her 2021 book from Codhill Press Fried Goldfinch; many were ekphrastic poems based on such visual artists as Arshile Gorky & James McNeill Whistler. She also read a clutch of what she described as “familial poems,” such as one on tobacco “American Spirit,” & the sestina “Wild Asparagus.” I always like to be surprised by good poets that I hadn’t yet heard of — more books to buy.

The final poet of the night, Ellen White Rook, is one I had definitely heard previously, & indeed she was a featured poet earlier this year at the monthly event I run, the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany, & was recently the featured poet at the Caffè Lena Poetry Night in Saratoga Springs. She included a quartet of poems from her attractively produced book Suspended (Cathexis Northwest Press, 2023) sprinkled throughout her set list. But also read other poems from a new manuscript, such as 2 companion pieces about seeing a demon in the room as a young girl & as an older woman, & the poem tilted “Drusen” on the conflation of language & a vision problem that I heard as a metaphor for poetry.

While not quite a night of “poetry in performance,” certainly an evening of quite excellent work by local writers, making one question why one would need some celebrity poet from out-of-town to make this an “event” anyways. 

Support your local poets at the venues & your local artists at the galleries near you.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, November 16

This was a night of only the open mic poets. I started off with the evening’s Muse, a poet that I had discovered in my youth whose style seems in retrospect to foreshadow hip-hop, the insistent rhyming, the word-play, political statements, the beat poet Ted Joans, whose “Let’s Play Something” made me laugh out loud; tonight I read his poem "The Hat" from his Selected Poems  It ended up being a very chatty night going to almost 9:00 even without the feature.

So the 1st reader on the list was the stalwart Sylvia Barnard, who read a new poem inspired by a poet from England, Malcolm Guite, & his book of poems based on the Psalms, her descriptive poem imagining King David writing his poems that became what we know of as the Psalms, & imagining a future peace.

Josh the Poet was also back again to read tonight “The Hate You Give,” inspired by a film of the same title, on being black & building on that as a blessing.

David Gonsalves read a meditative poem, “Honey & Time,” building to the last line which is the title of the poem.

Tom Bonville read a poem titled “The Hole,” about discovering a shotgun in his wife’s closet, her father’s gun, & the troubling thoughts that it engendered, putting a “hole” in their marriage.

I read an old poem inspired by the City workers in Washington Park, “Planting Tulips.”

Edie Abrams has not been here in quite some time & brought a poem she wrote at the last-minute for last week’s reading at the Arboretum on the theme “War & Peace,” on how to counter war & murder, proposing adding Valium to municipal water, rather than fluoride. 

Anthony Bernini was also back after a hiatus, read a poem, “The Pisquaon in Winter,” about a river, a description of its flow to the sea with a hope for Spring.

Joan Goodman wore her father’s fedora, read from her computer a rambling, sad meditation on an Israeli soldier taken hostage in the fighting; then a shorter, lighter piece “Idaho Come Dancing.”

Sue Cerniglia frequently shows up but doesn’t read, but tonight read about an assignment in high school to bring a poem for a discussion & she chose the lyrics for Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” which didn't sit well with the nuns.

Come back any third Thursday of the month to the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, at 7:30PM, for an open mic, with, usually, a featured poet — your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.

Poetic License - Albany, November 13

A reading/open mic in conjunction with the Poetic License - Albany exhibit at The Fish Market Gallery in Troy. This is the 2nd year of a collaboration between/among the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, the Upstate Artists Guild, & the larger community of poets & visual artists to bring art & poetry together. "Ekphrastic art" is a term describing creative work in one genre responding to work in another; the most common iteration is poetry written in response to a piece of visual art, e.g., a painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. This project involves visual artists responding to poems by area poets, then both the visual art & the poem being displayed together — ekphrastic art. 

This night we gathered in the gallery for a reading of poetry, not all of which inspired a work of visual art, but we were surrounded by sparkling works of art while the poets read their scintillating words. The MC of the event was no other than Mary Panza, a host & participant of many poetry open mics over the years.

The first reader was Don Maurer, who began with his poem in 3 short parts, “Unnatural Acts,” which inspired a painting by Phil Palmieri; he also read a poem titled “Nauset Beach, Cape Cod, 1840” & another in rhyme on season changes.

Chloe Glenn’s poem “The Moth” inspired paintings by Rebecca Schoonmaker & Tina Johnston; she also read an elegy, “The Last Night Walk,” & one titled “What You Left in the Forest.”

As happens in this project a poem selected as a possible source of inspiration may not be picked up by an artist, as happened to Alexander Perez, but Perez who is a frequenter of the many open mics in the area, read a poem, “Kisses from Beethoven,” inspired by his reading the letters of the great composer.

Brian Liston, who also participated in last year’s inaugural Poetic License - Albany, read a series of his short poems, some single words stacked up, including “Struggle” that inspired work by Sven Willets; he also read his poem “Autistic Superkid” that was originally published in Chronogram magazine.

Noah Kucij was a local poet who submitted 2 poems for the event, then died suddenly in April. Tonight, his friend Matt Rector came to honor Noah’s memory & read his poems, “At the Missing Sock Laundromat” (that inspired a collage by Tess Lecuyer), & “Your Photos A Year Ago This Week” (that inspired a photograph by Thom Francis), as well as a poem Matt wrote years ago while hanging out with Noah, “I Got Rhythm #5 -14”.

Rebecca Schumejda’s poem “Unlike Geese,” from her book Sentenced (NYQ Books, 2023) inspired a painting by Jason Martinez, but instead of Rebecca reading the poem, it was read by her daughter Alexis.

Nick, who is a regular here at the weekly open mic, Poetic Vibe, joined as an open mic reader, read 2 inspirational, personal pieces “Transformation,” & “Begin Again.”

The last poet, Ryan Smithson,  read as an open mic poet, but he had also submitted visual work, composed of butterfly wings, inspired by a poem, “Lungs of the Universe,” by Margaret McDermott; Ryan read her poem, then his own poems “The Serpent & the Apple,” & “An Ode to Powdered Donuts.” I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Ryan’s moving memoir of his tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Iraq, Ghosts of War: the True Story of a 19-year-old GI (Harper Collins, 2009).

Check the Hudson Valley Writers Guild calendar on its website for a list of other exhibits & readings associated with the 2023 Poetic License - Albany project.