Third Thursday Poetry Night, May 18

Once again the local Corporate Challenge run took over some of the streets & roadways in the neighborhood of the Social Justice Center, having a negative impact on parking & navigating the streets. As a result many poets were intimidated & stayed home (or elsewhere). But there were a handful of us who made it to the SJC, including our featured poet Alan Catlin. Before we began the reading, I invoked the Muse, a long-time friend & poet Terry M. Dugan, by reading her poem “Ode for the Open Mic Poets” published in the anthology World Poetry Day (Moonstone Press, 2023).

Valerie Temple, our 1st open mic poet of the night, announced that she has a book of her poems published recently & read from it a poem titled “The Breath Past Death” written for veterans, or all the dead, addressed to the character Death. The book is Discovery of A Blunt Treasure by “Bertha Blunt” (Xulon Press, 2023) & apparently contains some poems she has read here in the open mic in the past.

Joan Geist didn’t worry about the traffic since she lives only a few blocks away; she read a draft “When the Lights Go Out” pondering what it would be like to go blind.

Julie Lomoe followed with a poem she started writing today for yet another Moonstone anthology, The Weight of Motherhood, “Stacey’s First Year” about her daughter, but knows it will be too long, as most of her pieces are, to be accepted in the book.

Francesca Sidoti also brought a work-in-project, titled “Junior High” a Winter poem from 6th grade.

I read a poem in honor of Alan that is an homage to all the bartenders in my life, “Joe the Bartender.”

I introduced Alan Catlin, one of the most published poets in America, by reading the unedited version of the bio he had sent me, but suffice it to say he “has been published in parts of six decades…” He has lived & worked right here in the Capital District for most of those years & is a frequent participant at this & other open mics in the area. He began by reading the most recent poem that he has written, “Hotline, a One-sided conversation,” about someone calling the Suicide Hotline after having worked there, a good introduction to his poems with their memorable characters in odd, dysfunctional situations. As was a poem from a prompt,”We’re Planting the Baby Heads by Moonlight…” (actually, doll heads). He read from a forth-coming books, Bar Guide for the Seriously Deranged, & other new books, The Shadow Play of Life, Listening to the Moonlight Sonata (Impspired), & How the Heart Will Endure (Kelsay Books) about the life and work of the photographer Diane Arbus, as well as from previously published books Exterminating Angels (Kelsay Books), Altered States (cyberwit.net), & Sunshine Superman (cyberwit.net). If you don’t have any books by Alan in your private library, get cracking, there are lots out there.

This event, an open mic with a featured poet, takes place each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, 7:30PM start (I’m usually there around 7:00 setting up) — your $5.00 (more or less) donation supports poetry events & the work of the Social Justice Center.