All Genre Open Mic out of Bennington, February 13

Charlie Rossiter, our host & Zoom master, started us off with his traditional “Welcome Rant,” that he has used at a variety of open mics over the years — & “the mic is now Open!” Charlie likes doing 2 rounds of supposedly 1 poem each so that's what we did. 

Surprise, I was first up on the sign-up sheet; in the 1st round I read my celebration of sitting in bars for the last 60 years, “Birthday Poem 2024.” 

Later, in the 2nd round, in a nod to the pending Valentines Day I read an old love poem, “Morning Key.”

Mark O’Brien dialed in from his attic, & in the 1st round showed an old photo of himself in the window an Amtrak train, his memoir poem responding to a prompt.

In his 2nd round piece Elvis appeared as a “psychopomp” (a spirit guide to the place of the dead), in a poem like a prayer. 

Bill Thwing began with a poem from the Japanese Haiku master Basho, then read the Japanese commentary & one of his own, & some translations from others. He brought out his guitar for the 2nd round, said he written song 25 songs written this month (!) & sang his new song, a dance piece “Mix it Up.”

Sherri Bedingfield read poems in both rounds from a 2016 collection of narrative poems she wrote of events in Scotland “Isabelle & Ann Early On,” & “Isabelle Entranced,” talking to her child. 

Julie Lomoe read a piece written last month, responding to a prompt about roads for a “Mike Jurkovic” open mic, but I think she meant Michael Czarnecki, her poem a visual piece “My Long & Riding Road Map” & thinking about ways to die.

In her 2nd round another responding to Czarnecki’s open mic, “Gratitude Poem the Day After Xmas,” a list poem.

Naomi Bindman’s 1st round poem, “Eating Flowers on a Winter Morning,” was a sensuous piece about tasting honey on the rim of her cup. 

Her 2nd round poem was one I’d heard her read previously, & the kind of poem I could hear again & again, about a gift of tulips from a friend, “No Small Thing.”  

Our host Charlie Rossiter in his 1st round read a poem about looking for heroes titled “Looking for Direction.”

In the 2nd round he read an old poem titled “Wrong Number” about a high school reunion & not remembering the kinds of things other folks seemed to remember.

Cheryl A. Rice, one of the 4 New Yorkers dialing in, began with a piece titled “23 & Me,” not interested in ancestry genetics. 

Her 2nd poem was a romantic memoir, “Romeo in July,” from the time she was dating her partner Michael, commuting to be together, full of tender details.

Tom Nicotera ended the 1st round with an early Summer poem, “Reading In the Spirit of T’ao Ch’ien [FootHills Publishing, 2012, edited by Charlie Rossiter] in my Breezeway” — you may still be able to get a copy from FootHill Publishing.

& he ended the night with a love poem, “Smack Dab in the Middle of the Suburbs,” a tender description of his lady friend’s house, flowers & trees, even the animals in the yard.

If you want to join this eclectic covey of poets who meet each 2nd Tuesday on Zoom (originating from Bennington, VT, send an email to Charlie charliemrossiter@gmail.com & ask to be put on his list, & maybe we’ll see you next time.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, February 11

Back at Collar City Mushrooms for the open mic, with our hosts Nancy Klepsch & me. We were joined by folks from a regular poetry workshop in East Nassau so we had a full open mic sign-up list — but always room for more. 

Appropriately enough, first on the list was Avery Stempel, the proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, who generously opens his farm/shop here for poetry each month; he read a work in progress inspired by the struggles of his cousin, a piece in rhyme beginning, “We’re all just broken people…”

Kathy Smith read some new poems (her book of poems, Let the Stones Grow Soft, was published in 2023 by The Troy Book Makers), the sad “In Geologic Time,” & one from a prompt from her poetry group to use the Imperative voice, “Downsize” -- the first of many poems today based on prompts.

Mimi Moriarty, who is in the poetry group with Kathy, read a Valentines Day poem, “I Wish For You,” then one titled “Wrong” posing the question, “what if we were wrong?” (Reminded me of a quote from Louis-Ferdinand Celine, “Learn how to be wrong, the World is filled with people who are right, that’s why it’s so disgusting.”)

Speaking of being wrong, I read next, 2 thematically related poems, “Joe the Bartender” & “Birthday Poem 2024” celebrating 60 years of sitting in bars.

Speaking of poetry groups, Philip Good was with others from his group to read a poem about the poetry group & Super Bowl Sunday (did I say this was the Day?).

Annabel Lee is in that group & read a poem from a prompt to write about a food & eating it, I think titled “Swedish Amber Crumbles;” then read another from the group (but not from a prompt), a word stream titled “No Mercy” (& how did Barry Manilow get in there?).

My co-host Nancy Klepsch read “The Invisible Lesbian” from her 2017 book God Must Be A Boogie Man, then a newer piece “Dear Taylor” for Taylor Swift.

Rhonda Rosenheck filled us in on some of the many poetry projects she is involved in, then read a love poem titled "Us" for her beloved, & one from mid-COVID based on a found-word prompt “Opulence.”

Agapi said she had read here previously, & began with, as so many did today, a poem from a prompt “Connecting” (inspired by working with patients who were dying); then a poem titled “Don’t Tell Me to Smile” that she wrote on New Years Day.

John Mason is also in the poetry group with Philip & Annabel, he read a string of thoughts titled “Forms” (complete with fungi), then a seasonal poem “When Does the Time Change, Fall?” which was a word play on that title. 

Anne Hoenstein had read here last month & today she read a sexy poem “Put a Light Around Me;” then another titled “Just What Grandpa Ordered.”

David Gonsalves finished off the list of readers with a couple poems, first “Uninvited Guest” a list of people at his son’s wedding, then one with the descriptive title “A Boy Scout Puts a Few Words in his English Teacher’s Mouth.” And that was it -- home for the Super Bowl.

The name of this open mic tells almost all you need to know, 2nd Sunday @ 2 — & the place is Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY — poetry + prose.

Poetry/Storytelling Open Mic, February 9

This is a new series at the Saratoga Springs Senior Center, held during the day, for those of us no longer working the 9 to 5. You can easily guess that the predominant hair color was grey. The organizer & host is poet Rachel Baum, who got us started by reading “Rotation,” a poem by Natasha Trethewey, about her father dying.

The reading started off with the featured poet, Jay Rogoff, who read mainly from his collection, Loving in Truth: New and Selected Poems (LSU Press, 2020). As one would expect from such a collection there was a variety of topics & moods, which makes for a reading in which the listeners are kept guessing, from science (“Sublimation” as a term in chemistry), to dance (“Latin Class”), “All the Same” from a series of loves poems for his wife, poems from a series based on the Book of Genesis (“In Hiding” & “Cain’s Gift”). There were clusters of sonnets, including a couple with the Virgin Mary in them (“The Ark” & “The Fountain”), & some new sonnets, one on the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, & one in trimeter (“Fathers Day”). His poems are built on strong, vivid images to comment on life & the world around the poet, such as his concluding poem, “Mennonites by the Sea” contrasting the fully-clothed Mennonite women with the more scantily-clad sun bathers. Jay is one of the great poetic treasures of this region.

From there, on to the open mic, with our host Rachel Baum starting us off with “What You Missed,” a poem about discovering a previously unknown half-brother through genetic testing. David Graham took us back to when he lived in Wisconsin, walking his dog in a cemetery, in his poem “To Earthward.” I followed with 2 recent poems, “Birthday Poem 2024” celebrating 60 years of sitting in bars, & “The Origin of Ghosts.”

Rhonda Rosenheck, who is busy with a number of her own poetry events, read from her phone a poem titled “My Skin Crackles” (like parchment), & a poem titled “Good at Math” from a 2018 chapbook. Jackie Craven read from a series of poems in which moments in Time are characters in the drama, the poems seem to be untitled, but began, “Clocks can’t be trusted in the Electric City…” & “Half-past yesterday has abandoned me…” 

The Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs, Joseph Bruchac, began with his poem “Tutuwas” that was included in the recent anthology The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal (Storey Publishiing, 2023), then a piece titled “Outside” written last night, composed of 4 Haiku formed into one poem. Steve read a memoir titled “The Squad” about his father & other emergency responders at a car wreck.

Debbie Begosian read a piece about “Needlepoint,” another titled “Trees.” Barry Finley gave a mini-course on the life & genius of Sir Isaac Newton. Tracy concluded the event with a reading of a section about the Bow & arrows from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. 

This event occurs on the 2nd Friday, of the month at 1:00PM, at the Saratoga Senior Center Dining Room, 290 West Ave., Suite 1, Saratoga Springs, NY — RSVP by calling (518) 584-1621. There is a featured reader, then an open mic with participant reads 2 short poems. Storytellers have 5 minutes to tell, narrate or perform their piece. 

Invocation, February 5

Formerly Invocation of the Muse, I’d missed this open mic, usually held on the 1st Monday of the month, last month when it was held on the 2nd Monday, when I was snowed in. Turns out The Eleven, at Lark Hall, where this is held, is now closed on Mondays, but opened, so to speak, for the few poets who show showed up this night. Not quite sure what the Future will bring.

The founding host is long-time poetry impresario R.M. Engelhardt, but this night his role was played by poet Samuel Maurice. There were 5 of us reading & a couple of folks in for the show, including Charlene Shortsleeves who still lives on Lark St., & Jen, the owner of The Eleven who was using the slow night to rearrange the bar. 

I signed up #2 which was de facto #1 & read 2 poems which were separated by years but united by theme, “Joe the Bartender” & “Birthday Poem 2024” celebrating 60 years of sitting in bars.

Josh the Poet, as he often does read a new, recently written poem, this one titled “Wasteful Energy.” Earlier, we had some time to talk about some of the recent poetry zines he had been reading.

John Allen made a rare open mic appearance to read poems from his chapbook from SurVision Books that had won their 2020 James Tate Poetry Prize, Rolling in the Third Eye (SurVision Books, 2010) including an Emily Dickinson word mish-mash “Purity,” & fragments of dream-like prose poems, with surreal clashes of images.

Sam Maurice called for a somewhat unnecessary break, time to refresh my drink, then when we returned Sam read from Bob Kaufman’s Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness (New Directions, 1965), the poem for his son, “Walking Parker Home” & “Benediction.” That inspired me to recite my favorite Bob Kaufman poem, “Believe, Believe.”

By this time Josh had caught his ride home, so John finished off the night with a couple more poems from his book, one to a woman, "Marlene," the other titled “Lunaire's Village.” In any event it inspired me to track down SurVision & order a copy of Rolling in the Third Eye.

For now, & until I hear different, this open mic takes place on the 1st Monday of the month at The Eleven at Lark Hall on the corner of Lark St. & Hudson Ave., Albany — but most other Mondays The Eleven is closed.

Cafe Euphoria Open Mic & Slam, February 2

I finally made it over to Troy for this twice monthly (1st & 3rd Fridays) event. The listing had said sign-up was at 6:30PM with a 7:30 start, but the house was basically filled by 6:00 when I got there, found a table, chair, ordered some food, & then by 7:10 the host El was on stage to start the open mic. I had seen El as a featured reader at Poetic Vibe at the Fish Market last year, where she apparently learned her hosting style, a standard at Slam venues — to ask everyone to start clapping to welcome the next poet up then tries to shout the name of the poet unintelligibly over the roar of the crowd — it doesn’t work — who? what’s their name? Instead of honoring the poet, it shows a disrespect for their identity, their name. As a result, this report is, to my standards, incomplete & does not document the event to the degree that I try to achieve. 

The Open Mic

El started off with a tale of having to break into her new apartment. The next poet was named, perhaps, Angie, followed by Elaina (?) with a couple songs on guitar & harmonica, “I’m a Rock’n’Roll Cowgirl Tonight Singing the Blues,” & “Don’t Give Me Your Alibis Again.” Then ? with a love poem from their notebook. The next poet was Alex (per Mary Panza who had seen them here previously) with “Ode to the Stuffed Animals.”

I know the next poet’s name, Cassidy (spelling?), from the subsequent Slam, who mumbled through a song on the ukulele. Don did a long story from memory (or improvised) set in Japan. Barry Goldman I recognized from a recent Invocation of the Muse open mic in Albany (& from open mics in years past); he read an evocative piece titled “Ancestors of the Summer Meadow” about finding the teeth of a long-dead possum, what he described as a writing exercise based on a poem by Richard Eberhard.

The next reader gave a “comfort warning” to their poem, perhaps the most bizarre I’ve heard, because of a reference to flies! Shelby (again, I subsequently learned their name from the open mic) read from their chapbook. The next poet I definitely knew his name — it was me! — I read my poem card “Content Advisory,” then “The Witches’ Necklace.” Lee, another whom I’d seen read at a recent Invocation of the Muse open mic, read a rhyming piece “The Kiss of Death,” then “A Toast” to his friends.

One of the staff of Cafe Euphoria read an eco-poem about the flooding of the Earth. The final open mic poet was also not clearly named, but did say they were performing for the first time, a song with a backing track from their phone.

The Slam

After a break it was on to the Slam, which there hasn’t been much of in recent years in this area due to a combination of factors, including burn-out & the COVID pandemic. But Slam is back at Cafe Euphoria. The host for this night’s Slam was veteran Albany poet & vice- president of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, Mary Panza, who has many years of experience hosting open mics in Albany, so I had no problems in catching some reasonable facsimiles of the participants' names. 

There were 7 contestants, in 2 rounds, with 5 judges chosen from those in the audience who had never been to a Slam before (one of the traditions at some Slam venues nationally). Slam is known for it’s rule-based structure, but here there were “no rules,” so they said, including the “3-minute rule,” which, while intended to put a limit on a performer’s time (with penalties in point reduction for going over), was often used as a target, making a good 2-minute poem warp into a repetitive 3-minutes of tedium. Most of tonight’s performers seemed to be novices at Slam & read pieces that were decent poems rather than the usual Slam hyper-performance of mediocre writing.

El was perhaps the sole performer with experience at other Slams, & has obviously been coached. In fact she sounded so much like another local well-known Slam performer — her cadence, even her accent — that with my eyes closed I could clearly visualize her coach (a much better poet). She, of course, scored very well.

Shelby, who had read in the open mic, read an OCD poem from her book. Lee performed a piece in rhyme titled “United States of Emergency;” he had also read in the open mic. Cassidy had performed with a ukulele in the open mic & the piece they performed in the Slam was political word-play in a musical rhythm.

Alex’s piece was titled “Everything Must Go.” Rose read a seasonal, post-holiday poem of depression, & scored well. Lizzie’s poem titled “Light & Peace” was about fighting the demons. 

In this setting there were no elimination rounds, & the 2 best scoring performers went straight to the head-to-head Final Round. That was Rose with a crafted poem about a break-up picnic for 2 with allusions to the Last Supper. El’s winning piece was an imagining of “when the Zombie Apocalypse comes…” & she went home with the money.

This open mic with a Slam takes place on the 1st & 3rd Fridays of the month at Cafe Euphoria, 225 River St., Troy, NY, 6:30PM to 9:00PM. Check out the website & their Facebook page.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, January 18

Avery Stempel at Cafe Web, April, 2000

The first one of the New Year, with Avery Stempel as the featured reader, as well as a full sign-up sheet. But first, we invoked the Muse, the spirit of the gone poet Michael McClure (1932 - 2020) whom I first discovered many years ago from his The New Book/A Book of Torture (Grove Press, 1961); tonight I read his poem “Mad Sonnet,” which was the first of a long series of “Mad Sonnets” over the years. I did eventually get to see him in person in October 2015 when he delivered the annual Olson Lecture in Gloucester, MA, & he signed my battered copy of The New Book/A Book of Torture.

The first open mic poet, Elaine Kenyon, was waiting at the door when I arrived at the SJC to open up; she had planned to read a poem by Stu Bartow, with her response to his poem, but I was distracted & misunderstood what she said & unfortunately I enforced the “one poem” rule. What she read was Stu’s poem “Vampires in the Atomic Age” from The Green Midnight (Dos Madres Press, 2018), from which Elaine has found inspiration from which to write her own poems. I owe her another shot at this.

Sally Rhoades read a piece titled “What Would I be as a High School Poet?” written on napkins at Caffè Lena listening to high school poets read, a memoir of her own growing up. Tim Verhaegen was up next with a piece, that he said he usually reads to a rhythmic background, about waking to the the sound of geese, bringing memories of his youth. Tom Bonville also read a memoir piece, “Her Name was Miss Hall,” about a Christmas concert. 

I first saw Avery Stempel perform his work at the Cafe Web, where this series on the third Thursday of the month began. He has continued to write & perform his poems, & now as well grows & markets mushrooms at his farm/shop/art gallery/performance space Collar City Mushrooms in Troy. For his reading tonight Avery said he dug deeply into his notebooks, even typing up some that had been languishing hand-written, never previously typed. He began, appropriately enough with one titled “We Are the Poem,” & was able to squeeze in 17 or 18 poems into his allotted time, in part due to mostly moving on from one poem to the next with little or no introductions, & while his delivery was often fast, he does articulate well & energetically. There were quite a few poems about food, such as “Just a Taste,” the nearly orgasmic “Sweet Potato Waffle,” “A Wednesday’s Over-Indulgence,” often combining food & romance/love as in “Her Own Fork & Knife.” The poems often contained a seasoning of humor, & were often piles of graphic images. While he could be preachy at times, he avoided abstractions, following Dr. Williams’ axiom, “no idea but in things.” & there was often music, as in a poem about dancing at a concert (“In the Groove”) & his concluding poem/rock music epiphany “Time to Flip the Record.” Phew — it was quite a ride, & a lot of fun.

After a brief break, we returned to the open mic. With my birthday coming up in a week, I read a birthday poem written in 1991, “To My Penis on our 45th Birthday.” David Gonsalves had to follow that, but did fine with “Riverside” a mash up of songs including “Down by the Riverside.”

Josh the Poet read a “new poem,” as he frequently does here, trying out his latest, this one titled “Midnight Thoughts,” written in the middle of the night, then slipped in another short one on letting life run its course. Carrie Coada was here for first time, although I had heard her read at Collar City Mushrooms in the past, with a love poem for a cat.

Elizag returned after a long hiatus, that she blamed on her infatuation with painting, but said she was inspired by what she was hearing here, & read a just-written piece titled “Safe Space,” & she is a Safe Person. Julie Lomoe was the final open mic poet of the night read a list poem written for Michael Czarnecki’s Zoom open mic she titled “Gratitude Poem the Day After Christmas.”

The Third Thursday Poetry Night takes place once a month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY at 7:30PM (signup starts about 7:00PM), with a featured poet & an open mic for the rest of us. Your donation ($5.00 suggested) supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center. Join us, & bring a poem to read.