River Poems, September 9

Host Nancy Klepsch in Herman Melville's living room    

The folks at the Lansingburgh Historical Society once again this year asked poet Troy poet Nancy Klepsch to organize a poetry reading as a fund-raiser at their headquarters in a house in which Herman Melville once lived. Nancy invited the poets James Duncan, Scott Laudati, & Darcy Smith to read as the program. I served as co-host with Nancy.

James Duncan is co-editor (along with Rachel Nix) of the online Hobo Camp Review. He led off the reading with poems about Albany (NY) from his book Both Ways Home (Alpine Ghost Press, 2022) that explores his two hometowns of Albany, & of San Antonio, TX. His read about the Patroon Island Bridge, the Albany Skyway & the ancient people of this land (“The Place Where the Water is Never Still”), & included “River Walk” set in San Antonio. He recently published a chapbook about places along the Hudson River titled Tributaries (Maverick Duck Press, 2023) & read most of poems in that book. He included a poem from June 2017 by Meghan Marohn, a Troy poet & activist who tragically died in 2022, that she composed for James on a typewriter on the banks of the Hudson River as part of her Troy Poem Project & that served as inspiration Tributaries.

Scott Laudati wrote his bio for me on a paper napkin: “Scott Laudati lives in Brooklyn. He has 3 books available outside. He has read Moby Dick twice!” He began with reading a poem that has been accepted for future publication by the afore mentioned Hobo Camp Review titled “Skinned Knees” for a dead friend, then poems titled “Grit” & one titled “Stoney Hill” (an apartment complex in New Jersey). Then on to a cluster of poems written while touring the USA, “Thus Passes the Glory of the World,” “Looking at Silver Lake,” “The Santa Fe Trail,” & “Clayton New Mexico.” You can find him on Facebook & other social media.

Darcy Smith read at the Social Justice Center in Albany for the Third Thursday Poetry Night back in June but I didn’t get her book that night so I was glad she was here, to hear her poems again & get River Poems (Fernwood Press, 2022). This day she read 6 poems from her books, only 1, the graphic, moving “Tossed,” that she had read at her early reading. The other poems this afternoon were the Autumn poem “Set the Clock Backs Back,” “Writing the Lotus” (addressed to Sylvia Plath), “Skimming Stones,” “Skate Me a River,” & “Ars Poetica, No. 10 Hooks” (metaphor in the images of fishing). & there are plenty more poems in River Poems to savor.

For more information about the Lansingburgh Historical Society, including how to donate to support their work, see the link to their site in the first paragraph above.