2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, June 11

My co-host, Nancy Klepsch, was lazing at P-town, & we missed her presence, particularly since we were well into Pride Month. There was a good turnout of poets for the open mic, some the regulars who show up here at Collar City Mushrooms, others here the for the 1st time. Then a tender gift at the end.

Rachel Baum was here for the first time (but I have heard her read at the open mic at Caffè Lena in the past, & she was instrumental this year in getting Saratoga County to establish the position of a Poet Laureate); her 1st piece was about her dealing with long COVID, comparing herself to the strength of an Elm tree; then she read a piece about the death of a 10-year old son of her nephew, “In His Memory.”

Joel Best has been a regular on the 2nd Sunday back to the pre-pandemic days at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, & we have come to know his poems of associative leaps & bounds of images; today he read about not seeing any birds for a while “Lost Birds” (but now they are back), then a poem from a dream (which he says he doesn’t usually do) “Inconstant Moment.”

The proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, Avery Stempel, is a long-time participant of the local poetry open mic scene, & now provides this marvelous space of mushrooms each month for this open mic; he did a brief exposition on the Lion’s Mane mushroom, introducing a new product, Lion’s Mane, organic Colombian cold brew coffee with the mushroom, produced in conjunction with kru coffee of Saratoga Springs, then read his poem “Amongst the Mushrooms.”

Alexander Perez is another frequent flyer at this open mic, he read a couple poems from his series on gay sex, with the recurring character Alejandro, “Devil’s Imprint” (with a description of Alejandro like a devil out of the engravings of William Blake, or the movie Rosemary’s Baby), then one titled “Prospect.”

Tom Bonville showed up today in a bright red shirt to background his poem “Raz-a-ma-taz Red” an intricate descriptive exploration of the color.

Kathy (Kathleen Anne) Smith introduced her new book from The Troy Book Makers, Let the Stones Grow Soft, by reading the tale of a small-town boy “Rough Cut;” then what she called “a mid/post COVID poem” titled “Home for Christmas After Falling on my Head.”

Deyva Arthur was here for the first time, she said she was primarily a prose writer, but indeed she won an honorable mention in the pre-pandemic HVWG Poetry Contest; today she read a poem titled “Tilling the Serenity Prayer,” then one titled simply “Passerby.”

I read a poem written last year for the anniversary of the birth of Allen Ginsberg, “June 3, 2022,” combining his poems & my Diaries, then one from further back than that from an exhibit at the UAG Gallery years ago, “Missing Pieces,” to honor the painter, the recently gone Wren Panzella.

The afternoon ended on a surprising note, one of the happy-sadness of remembering one who is gone, but who remains here in our memory & in her poems. Becky Partridge, the wife of the late Carol H. Jewell, who left us last year for that Poetry Open Mic in the Sky, joined us to read 2 of Carol’s poems from her 2017 chapbook Hits and Missives (Clare Songbirds Publishing House), the sexy poem with olives, “If You Want to Write a Love Poem,” & the tender poem of love & death, “My Fears.” I’m glad Becky was at the end of the list because I don’t think I could’ve gone on if she had read any earlier.

This open mic is each 2nd Sunday of the Month at 2PM (from which it gets its name), at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY — it’s free, but the mushrooms are for sale — ask Avery about them. Bring poems to read.