2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, January 14

Snow squalls probably delayed some folks from getting here, others perhaps stayed home, but by the time we were done with poetry the squalls had passed & the weather cleared. But I had made it from Albany, as did my co-host Nancy made it from further downtown Troy.

And Rachel R. Baum made it from Saratoga Springs. She began with the title poem of her recently-published chapbook from Bottlecap Press, Richard Brautigan’s Concussion, then a poem titled “I See Your Ghost” from her forthcoming poetry collection How to Rob a Convenience Store (Cowboy Jamboree Press).

David Gonsalves read a poem titled “Last Thursday,” although I’m not sure if that was when it was written, a funny list of notes taken at a conference of the things happening (or not); his 2nd poem was a very brief “Upright.”

I was up next & read 2 very recent poems that had not at that point been typed up, from my current “poetry workbook,” “Kesha-Undaha” inspired by reading the Lankavatara Sutra, another titled “The Origin of Ghosts,” but I’m not sure that’s what it was about.

The proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, Avery Stempel, who graciously makes his fungal space available for this open mic each month, read 2 pieces from his anthology of mushroom poems that he published a while back, “A Mushroom in the Snow” & “The Mushrooms Are Here.”

Co-host Nancy Klepsch read just one poem, one that I’ve enjoyed hearing previously, & is now available online in Trailer Park Quarterly #14, “Mama I See Your Daughter.” 

Rhonda Rosenheck began with “Wedge” a poem playing on that word, its meanings, & on memory; her 2nd poem was “Asymmetry” from a year ago, about the results of a breast exam.

Anne Hoenstein slipped in towards the end, not someone who reads out often, read some good pieces, “My Daughter’s Walls,” then another piece in multiple parts, a memory, as a letter, to a former/gone lover.

This open mic — no featured poet — takes place on, as its name says, the 2nd Sunday @ 2, at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave, Troy, NY — bring some poems or short prose. & maybe take home some mushrooms for dinner.

[Note: photos by Avery Stempel.]