2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, August 13

The mushroom keep growing, the writers keep writing. & Nancy Klepsch & I are still the co-hosts, while the open mic poets keeps showing up.

First on today’s list was Rachel R. Baum with a poem based on her experience on Ancestor.com on finding a relative she didn’t know about, “What You Missed,” then, what she said was a “loop poem,” titled “Words Once Flew” based on the work of novelist Jerzy Kosinski (1933 - 1991). Our esteemed co-host, Nancy Klepsch, read from a work-in-progress, a memoir “We Lived Happily Away from the War.” 

Joel Best talked about index cards he keeps with ideas for characters who might (or might not) show up in short stories, then read a poem titled “My Charles” about a character who had not yet made it into a story; then a speculative poem, “Astral Being,” about what it might be like if he were one.

Bob Sharkey was back with a couple of memoir pieces from the beaches of Maine, the 1st about wild fires there, “Goose Rocks Beach, 1947; then a piece he found when he was looking for the poem he just read, “Killing Me Softly.” 

Kathy Smith read “Things That Spill,” a memoir of her Aunt Mary from her book Let the Stones Grow Soft (The Troy Book Makers, 2023). Naomi Bindman’s new poem, “Crazy,” began with the line “I am the crazy lady …” then on to “Shabat” & the nature of god.

It was my turn & since it was August I read Tom Nattell’s poem “Hiroshima” in my best (?) Tom Nattell imitation, then my new piece about the Bomb, “A Poem for August 6.” Tom Bonville’s piece “The Apostle Thomas” was filled with memoir & images of Troy, on being an altar boy at Xmas eve Mass, & why he is now known as “Tom” rather than “Ed.”

The final 2 readers were young women, both reading for the first time (i.e., “virgins”). Harleyanne Richards said what she feels comes out on paper, read a piece titled “Anger.” 

Anna Galvagai read a piece on loss, with images of a dance, then what could be described as a “broken piece” in line fragments. A good way to end the open mic with poets of the future.

This congenial, community open mic is held at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY each 2nd Sunday of the month at 2PM. Join us & bring some poems or a short bit of prose.