Third Thursday Poetry Night, November 16

This was a night of only the open mic poets. I started off with the evening’s Muse, a poet that I had discovered in my youth whose style seems in retrospect to foreshadow hip-hop, the insistent rhyming, the word-play, political statements, the beat poet Ted Joans, whose “Let’s Play Something” made me laugh out loud; tonight I read his poem "The Hat" from his Selected Poems  It ended up being a very chatty night going to almost 9:00 even without the feature.

So the 1st reader on the list was the stalwart Sylvia Barnard, who read a new poem inspired by a poet from England, Malcolm Guite, & his book of poems based on the Psalms, her descriptive poem imagining King David writing his poems that became what we know of as the Psalms, & imagining a future peace.

Josh the Poet was also back again to read tonight “The Hate You Give,” inspired by a film of the same title, on being black & building on that as a blessing.

David Gonsalves read a meditative poem, “Honey & Time,” building to the last line which is the title of the poem.

Tom Bonville read a poem titled “The Hole,” about discovering a shotgun in his wife’s closet, her father’s gun, & the troubling thoughts that it engendered, putting a “hole” in their marriage.

I read an old poem inspired by the City workers in Washington Park, “Planting Tulips.”

Edie Abrams has not been here in quite some time & brought a poem she wrote at the last-minute for last week’s reading at the Arboretum on the theme “War & Peace,” on how to counter war & murder, proposing adding Valium to municipal water, rather than fluoride. 

Anthony Bernini was also back after a hiatus, read a poem, “The Pisquaon in Winter,” about a river, a description of its flow to the sea with a hope for Spring.

Joan Goodman wore her father’s fedora, read from her computer a rambling, sad meditation on an Israeli soldier taken hostage in the fighting; then a shorter, lighter piece “Idaho Come Dancing.”

Sue Cerniglia frequently shows up but doesn’t read, but tonight read about an assignment in high school to bring a poem for a discussion & she chose the lyrics for Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” which didn't sit well with the nuns.

Come back any third Thursday of the month to the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, at 7:30PM, for an open mic, with, usually, a featured poet — your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.