Third Thursday Poetry Night, October 19

The night’s featured poet was Rebecca Schumejda. Our Muse for the night was the late Jean Valentine (1934 - 2020), former New York State Poet; I read her poem “The World Inside This One” from her collection Break the Glass (Copper Canyon Press, 2010).

On to a bit of the open mic before the feature, there were 13 on the signup sheet. First up was Alan Catlin, who hadn’t been here in a while, with one piece titled “Foreign Affairs” about a person he worked with when he was a bartender, who wanted to be in the Peace Corps, because of his father’s experience, but for all the wrong reasons. Sylvia Barnard did a “show-&-tell” with a copy of the year book from a school she started out at but she didn’t graduate from, her poem “Yearbook” about her classmates & her own path to success.

Joe Krausman read on the topic of “insomnia,” like the great poet Wisława Szymborska, & the prospect of eventually sleeping forever. I haven’t seen Don Levy at a poetry open mic since before the pandemic, but here he was tonight to read a poem about aging titled “My Slowing Down” (at age 63). 

The long-standing rule at the Third Thursday Poetry Night for the open mic is one poem, but this night Tom Bonville decided to challenge that, throwing his arrogance into the faces of the 4 poets who had just read before him; I will report on the first of the 3 poems he strong-armed, then report on the other 2 in subsequent Blogs in the next months — the poem was titled “Shopping.”

Tonight’s featured poet was Rebecca Schumejda whose work I’ve been following with interest, glee & great admiration over many years. Her latest book is Sentenced (New York Quarterly Books, 2023) from which she read tonight, beginning with “Then He Begged Me to Go Back with Him to Rescue the Others” a memoir of her brother when he was 8 years old releasing goldfish, then “Three Days Before Sentencing” after he killed his wife. “A Funeral for the Living,” “A Nest,” her daughter finds a bird’s nest, writes to her uncle in prison, “Visiting,” “I don’t want this poem to be about the death penalty, but it is.” She concluded her reading with a funny poem, “Bobby Balls-In-Hand,” from her book about a pool hall she once owned with her husband, from her book Cadillac Men (NYQ Books, 2012). Her poems grab us by the details, the everyday that springs forward to become what is familiar to us all, although our experiences might be vastly different.

After that a break was much needed, giving the audience a chance to buy her books.

I led off the 2nd half of the open mic list with a Halloween themed poem, now a sonnet, “Witches in the Attic.” David Gonsalves followed with his one poem “Evening on Mt. Epilogue” twisting in time. First time reading here was Justin Mitchell, with one poem in rhyme “Running with Wolves” not quite a Halloween poem but a scary poem just the same.

Joan Goodman’s long stand-up comedy routine (over 7 minutes) included a 3-minute + intro with the tedious request to the audience to “pick” which piece she should read; if this were a Slam with its traditional 3-minute time limit where as soon as the performer starts talking the timing starts, it would’ve been enough time to have 2 poets do their thing.

Kristen Day, who hasn’t been here since I can’t remember when, & we were glad to have her back, was much more considerate of the time with her one poem from a prompt “Things That You Say Everyday,” a list of exactly that. Sally Rhoades, a regular here, read one poem from a prompt that she has never read out previously, titled “Small Beer,” read for Alan Catlin, a memoir of her father & the small-town bar he frequented.

Ellen Rook had been a featured poet here back in April & came back to read in the open mic; her one poem was titled “Like Water Into Water,” a lush description of canoeing in the mist. Mary Panza, my massage therapist, & our final poet for the night, read “Bridle” a rant about her wedding dress & its aftermath — if you could see the future then, would you think the same about you? 

The Third Thursday Poetry Night takes place at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, sign-up starts about 7:00PM, with the open mic starting at 7:30, & a featured poet. Your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the SJC.