Invocation of the Muse, January 9

Usually on the 1st Monday of the month, this reading/open mic was moved to the 2nd Monday due the holiday weekend last week, & there was a good showing of the regular crowd.

Our host, R.M. Engelhardt, invoked the spirit of the rock’n’roll writer, biographer, poet, Nick Tosches (1949 - 2019) as the evening’s Muse, & read his poem(s) “If I Were Robert Stack” (if I were, I’d be dead). On to the open mic.

I read a couple poems written during the last year, “Fiona’s Cards” & a tale of mystery & suspense “The Rescue.”

As Melissa Anderson came to the stage, the old pipes in the Hall began clanking as the heat started coming on; she described her poem, “Found Dream,” as “fantastical” but it sounded like a love poem to me, then read one titled “Reflex City.”

Josh-the-Poet was here to perform a new, untitled piece on relationships as spiritual.

The featured poet was Shannon Lynette who has been around for a number of years but except for a rare appearance at an AlbanyWord Fest many years ago I haven’t seen her at area open mics. But she does have a few books out on Amazon Marketplace  as well as serving as the editor of a number of anthologies, &, according to her Facebook page, is the Associate Editor of Dumpster Fire Press  So tonight was a rare treat to see & hear her read. She read from her May 2022 self-published collection of poems Awkward Years.

There was a screed titled “Fuck You Cancer” about her sister, a couple poems with “time stamps,” “2AM” & "Wednesday Night at 9:30PM,” another titled “Open Mic” (I guess I missed that one), a poem she described as “a personal favorite” about how you can write about anything titled “Shower Poem,” & “Safari” that I took to be about hunting for a poem. Her poems are the kind of work that can easily fit into the poetry open mics that I attend regularly so I am perplexed why I haven’t seen her out more often. 

After a short break we were back with the open mic & the former featured poet, Dimitri Wild, performed 2 poems from his last book which I think is titled Rebel Eyes, the first titled “Death Ship to Paradise” in rhyme as if it might be a song lyric, & one “on bad words” with lots of dramatic posing.

Maurice, who has been coming to this open mic since it began at the Fuze Box, said he was working on his new book, the first piece about a car crashing into a hydrant, then one titled “Thrown into the Flux of Things” but both sounded similar & if run together the 2 pieces could be one poem.

Both of the poems that Caitlin Conlon read tonight were untitled, & about love, the first about being in bed with a cat & a lover, the 2nd in her kitchen thinking of the things love has taken away.

Sierra DeMulder began with a poem about partying in a truck bed with the captivating title “How to Change the Pronoun in a Love Poem,” & another with a simpler title “Sacral Chakra.”

Pat Williams was the featured poet here back in November; tonight in the open mic he read a piece titled “Epigenetics” about sharing the characteristics of both parents, & another piece, “Caught in a Drift,” both read way too fast.

Alexander Perez showed up to read a poem for “dog lovers” titled “On Cats,” then “The Older Men Have Given In to Love,” & one about being with a lover in the cold “Holding On.”

Our host, R.M. Engelhardt, ended the night with a couple of his poems, both in his characteristic serious, preaching style, the first about a pissing match with another poet, “With Nothing More to Say,” then, similarly, “In the Last Days of the Obvious Unknown Words.”

This monthly open mic, with a featured poet, continues each 1st Monday of the month at Lark Hall on the corner of Lark Street & Hudson Avenue in Albany, NY, sign-up at 7:30PM, 8:00PM start — $5.00.