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.