Susan Oringel — Carnevale Book Launch, March 17

This reading & book-signing was held at the Unity Church in Albany on King St. The Senior Minister is the Rev. Brigid Beckman  There was diverse audience in the Sanctuary of friends, fellow members of the congregation, & poets. Sue is well-known in the poetry community, & has a previous chapbook of poems, My Coney Island from Finishing Line Press (2019).

Sue read a hefty selection of about 30 poems from her new book, Carnevale (David Robert Books), beginning, appropriately enough given the setting, with what sounded like a prayer, “Poor Everybody.” Then on thru the book.

There were memoir poems of her parents & Coney Island & food (“Chopped Chicken Livers,” “Not Just Any Old Food,” “My Father’s Workshop,” “Sundowning,” “Mom & Dad Barbecue in Heaven,” etc.). 

The section titled “Carnevale” contains love poems, grieving poems for her late partner Don, memories of good times & later. At one point she paused the poems to acknowledge the support the community of Unity Church provided her during her grief.

The final section of the book, “Beyond Us, Something,” is what might be called “spiritual reflections,” with titles like “Middle-Aged in Spring,” “Jim’s Theology of Ice Cream” (for a former pastor of Unity Church), & others, ending coming full circle with the poem titled “My Coney Island.”

The poems with their stories, little & big, kept the audience in rapt attention, a pleasant way to spend some time on a Sunday “after church.”

Carnevale is available from the publisher’s website or from the poet directly at her readings, & I’m sure your local Independent bookstore can order it for you. 

Support Your Local Poet.

 

Writers Mic, March 13

Another of the Zoom open mics with a loyal attendance, this one mostly regional upstate NY poets, is hosted by poet Jackie Craven, sometimes from Florida, tonight back in Schenectady.

David Graham, from even further up North, read 2 poems bracketing his stroke; from the year before the stroke, “Parade of Ghosts,” a pandemic poem, seasoned with humor & philosophy & his dog; then a poem from a year after his stroke, “The Other Side of the Hour” in which his father speaks to him from the Dead.

Susan Oringel read from a new series of poems about the aftermath of having bladder cancer — complete with “trigger warnings,” —  from early on in the process “Red Anemone, Diagnosis,” & from later on “At the Market in Istanbul” in a toilet.

Scott Morehouse injected a dose of hysterically funny fiction with a piece titled  “Hustle & Bustle,” an argument at a law firm about going on a diet, coming up with bustles for men that becomes a fad (pretty sure I’d forego that fashion).

Rachel Baum read from her new chapbook on guns, How to Rob a Convenience Store,  with yet another “trigger warning” (perhaps the pun intended), “I See your Ghost,” & “No One they Knew” in the mind of a school shooter.

Alan Catlin began with a poem written today that will be the last poem in a new book of bar poems Last Call for Lazarus, this poem about a bus boy & a couple of nurses; then a poem pulled from his archives, thoughts in 4 parts on viewing paintings in the Fred Dana Marsh museum in Ormond Beach, Florida. 

I didn’t bother with any trigger warnings for my 2 poems about my beloved lilac bushes, in different seasons, “The Lilacs,” & “Lilacs Again.”

Susan Jewell’s poem her nephew’s snowmobile trips, “Ode to the Snowmobiler,” depicted a grand vision of the nephew as a heroic, historical figure.

Jackie Craven read a couple of her poems in which times of the day, even time itself, are depicted as characters; she read the prose poem, “Clocks Can’t be Trusted in the Electric City” (clocks in Schenectady with different times), & one beginning “Management has hired 3 new seconds…” which may indeed be the title.

If you would like to join this congenial monthly open mic, on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, you can find information & the link on the Facebook site Writers Mic.

All-Genre Open Mic out of Bennington, March 12

A good turnout on Zoom, better than some nights in-person, pre-pandemic, when Charlie Rossiter hosted this event at the Tap House in Bennington, now just a short stroll to my computer in the other room. We went around twice, 1 poem each round.

& so once again I was first on the sign-up list, to read from a mini-chapbook, Behind the Barn, I published  some years back, after a 3 Guys from Albany trip to Kentucky, containing the found poems of Jodi BlowJob. In the 1st round I read the introduction, then in the 2nd round “After What You Said.”

Francesca Sidoti began with a “trigger warning” for “Cathead 2, The Year of the Tiger,” about 1974 & the rock’n’roll music of the time. In her 2nd round she read a memoir about herself, having different lives at different times. 

Cheryl Rice read a poem about a party at her hometown of Freeport, Long Island, “Bird Out of Nest” both real & figuratively; in the 2nd round read one titled “3 Bottles” about feeding her lover, & always having enough of Japanese mayonnaise on hand.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read “How We Live,” a poem from his Milwaukee days, and getting a used refrigerator they named “George the Norge.” His 2nd round poem was from a road trip years ago, passing through “Carhenge” Nebraska where old car bodies are stacked to represent Stonehenge.

Sharon Smith is relatively new to this group, in the 1st round she read a memoir of her parents after the rhythm method of birth control failed, “Their Best Mistake.” Her 2nd-round poem was an elegy for Rusty Young of the rock band Poco, who was a friend of hers, he died in April, 2021; the band’s biggest hit was “Crazy Love” in 1979.

Sherri Bedingfield is a regular here, read an older poem, written in Galway Scotland about birds “At a Window;” then in the 2nd round another bird poem about geese flying, a memoir of her father.

Naomi Bindman began with 2 short chapters from a memoir-in-progress, titled, “In Which Mom Talks to Us about God,” the first about sex, then one about her new baby brother. In her 2nd round she read a piece titled “Tree Heart,” Winter walk of a teacher & her class measuring an ancient tree. 

Julie Lomoe reprised 2 poems I have happened to hear her read in the last week, “Bela & the Rats” which she read this past Friday at the Saratoga Senior Center Poetry/Storytelling Open mic, then on the 2nd time around a piece she read this past Sunday at Collar City Mushrooms “Excess Baggage” a paean to Cadbury Eggs, proclaiming “what good is life without chocolate?” 

Tom Nicotera read 2 poems with light playing a role; in the 1st round “The Dance of Light,” a meditation & description of the rising Sun, in the 2nd round “Shadow,” from a series of “breezeway poems” about seeing a fox, & glad not to be his victim.

Mark W. O’Brien said he has written a lot of Elvis poems recently, tonight read “Elvis Lives,” explaining that Elvis followed the St. Louis Cardinals, & once had a conversation with the great sports announcer Harry Carey; then a piece about Elvis getting telepathic messages from aliens & thus the origin of his white suit. Many of us have our Elvis poems.

If you want to join this friendly group of poems each month on the 2nd Tuesday on Zoom, but you are not on Charlie’s email list, send him an email at charliemrossiter@gmail.com & ask to join the list.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, March 10

It was a full house at Collar City Mushrooms for our monthly open mic, having to add spaces to the sign-up sheet. 

It was most appropriate that co-host Nancy Klepsch was the lead-off reader; she read 2 epistolary poems, “Dear Taylor” (as in Swift), & “Dear Nex” to Nex Benedict, a trans student who died after a fight in a school bathroom in Oklahoma. David Gonsalves read a couple of seasonal pieces, “Spring Song” (“a day to make things up”), &, as we had just “sprung ahead” our clocks, “Marigold Standard Time.” Julie Lomoe read about herself, her weight, in a piece titled “Excess Baggage” responding to a prompt.

I haven’t seen Karen Fabiane at an open mic in quite a while & it was good to hear her read 2 poems from a 2022 book Between Canal & Ida, “I Fucked St. Joan” (which I recall from an earlier chapbook Seeing You Again), then “Goddess Park” (like a theme park). Tom Bonville read “Morning Coffee,” instructions/family recipe for how to serve it, including a raw egg in the mug. Sally Rhoades said she was reading 2 of her husband, Hasan’s, favorite poems, both about cemeteries, the first about a military cemetery “White Crosses,” the second “Don’t Put Plastic Flowers on My Grave.”

Tim Verhaegen read a piece of fiction, a saga set in 1940 of a rich widower & his careless children. It being almost Spring I read 2 related poems, “The Lilacs” & “The Lilacs, Again.” Tom Corrado has been writing his “Screen Dumps” for quite some time now, & publishing them in give-away chapbooks, today read number “Screen Dump 745” !

Rhonda Rosenheck read what said was (& indeed sounded like) an “abecedarian” titled “Names for Snow,” & a seasonally related Haiku titled “Lost Scarves." John Mason read what sounded like an eco-poem, “The Flaming Rain” angry rain on his porch roof, then he too read an abecedarian poem about playing ball on Valentine’s Day “Winter’s Fall.”

Anne Hohenstein started off with anaphoric poem where the phrase “Are we brave enough…” repeated at the beginning of each line, then “Requiem” (for Patricia in her grave, she said). We ended with the proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, Avery Stempel, who read a rhapsody of fungi “Always Something New,” then briefed us on recent activities in the advocacy for psilocybin accessibility. 

We meet each month on the 2nd Sunday @ 2 for poetry + prose at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY — all you need to know. 

Saratoga Senior Center Poetry/Storytelling Open Mic, March 8

I was pleased to be the featured poet at this new series, filling in for Judith Prest (who is much prettier) who will re re-scheduled. The host & coordinator is Saratoga poet Rachel R. Baum (who is also more pretty than I am). She opened the event by reading her poem to an ex, inspired by Taylor Swift “Roping the Scapegoat” (but in my notes the title could be “Raping the Scapegoat” which I think it is not).

I read for about 15 minutes, followed by an open mic. I began with a Haibun by the recently gone poet Stuart Bartow from his book of Haiku, one branch (Red Moon Press, 2019), a piece that I had read to the ocean at Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA after Stu’s death, then a poem by Judith Prest from Geography of Loss (Finishing Line Press, 2021) “Prayer for a Broken Land” a golden shovel eco-poem. Of my own work I read “Joe the Bartender,” 2 base all poems “Vamos Gatos” & “Waiting for Jacqueline Robinson” (both from Baseball Poems, A.P.D., 2019), then from my “poem cards” the imitation “Challenging Richard Brautigan,” a nod to Rachel’s recent chapbook from bottle cap press, Richard Brautigan’s Concussion.

I was happy to see poet Catherine Clark here, whom I first met many years ago at a NYS Writers Institute sponsored workshop with the late, great Irish poet John Montague. She read a couple poems from a poetry collection Oh Shining Moon, including the title poem, & the rural “King Road Spring Song.”

David Gonsalves, whom I see frequently down in Albany at other open mics, was up next; his first poem, titled “Honey & Thyme,” was an anaphoric repetition at the start of each line of the phrase “Consider the one…” then he also had a “Spring Song.”

Jay Rogoff, who had been the featured poet here last month, read an ekphrastic piece titled “Three Women” describing a painting by John Currin (from The Long Fault, Louisiana State University Press, 2008).

David Graham, who not only has been a featured poet at North Country poetry venues, including here, also shows up at open mics, in-person & online, said he stumbled on an old poem he barely remembered writing that fell into his series of graveyard poems, “Sounds Like Singing.”

Kathy Pelky (not sure of correct spelling) wanted to read a poem written by someone else, & she didn’t know their name, but it was a short poem the she carries around with her, containing the line, “one day I wrote a poem that was better than its author” — feel like that often myself.

Carol Shup Star, whom I remember seeing at the great Caffè Lena poetry open mic, read two visually bright poems, the first about morning glories, “Heavenly Blue,” the other titled “Moonlight Ashes.”

Rhonda Rosenheck, who also is out-&-about poet, began with a poem about craving peace “My Heart is in the East,” then a memoir piece, a combination of Haiku & tankas, “Massachusetts Past Life.” 

Julie Lomoe read a poem about her past life in NYC’s SoHo district, a piece for International Women’s Day, “Bela & the Rats.”

If you are available in the middle of the day this monthly open mic (with a featured reader) takes place on the 2nd Friday of the month (usually) at the Saratoga Senior Center, 290 West Ave,. Saratoga Springs, NY, at 1:00PM — check the events calendar on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild for any changes. 

Invocation, March 4

As noted in the Blog on last month’s Invocation open mic, The Eleven, the bar/coffee house where this event is held, is now closed on Monday’s — unless on the 1st Monday when the open mic happens. The host, R.M. Engelhardt, announced at the start of the evening that they are looking to perhaps move to another night of the month. Although on this night not only were there a 9 poets signed up for the open mic, there were a few additional patrons at the bar drawn by the lights on & clearly something happening. 

Rob started off the night with readings of pieces from 2 writers, the first was from the recently published Nothing Ever Changes: Meditations by Ralph Lumpkin, from Dead Man’s Press Ink (the editors are R.M. Engelhardt & Samuel Maurice); Lumpkin styles himself as an “amateur philosopher”. The 2nd reading was a piece titled “Axiomatic” by British poet Peter Reading (1946 - 2011), whose work was described in his obituary on Guardian US as “slag-heap epitaphs lit by anger & wine.”

I’d signed up in the #2 slot but since no one signed up in the #1 slot, I was #1 (see how easy it is to be #1?), & read “Spathe is the Plathe” about the “Great American Eclipse” in August, 2017, & a poem titled “Missing Pieces” based on a painting by of Sun Ra by the late great painter of jazz scenes Wren Panzella.

Pat Williams has been a frequent reader her at Invocation (& its previous iteration), with 2 poems, a “before & after” therapy sessions as he explained, “Have You Seen My Joy?” & an untitled dialogue beginning “Hey boy, how you been? …”

Pete Randazzo apparently was here at the urging of Pat Williams, & he confessed to being a poetry virgin, reading his work out for the 1st time; his first piece was a seasonal poem titled “Junco,” then a descriptive piece of Senior Night at the high school where he coaches wrestling & teaches Social Studies.

Austin Houston read a tender diptych of poems about his father who had been a coma (now recovered); the 1st titled “Your Time is Yet to Come” in which the poet imagines what his father is experiencing, the 2nd was in the voice of his father recounting what the coma was like, “My Meeting with Death.”

Samuel Maurice, Rob’s co-host, recited poems from memory, the first a play on wine & words, the 2nd one he has done previously, the urban tale of a car accident on his block titled “Zodiatical Hydrant.”

Maria Sohn, foreground; Charlene Shortslive sketching 

Maria Sohn seems to have been lurking on the fringes of the open mic scene & tonight bravely stepped to the forefront to read 3 very short pieces, “Slap” her most recent poem, “Some Days” about worrying about her daughter’s flight to Las Vegas, & “Worst Pain” about comforting a friend at the wake for the friend’s son.

Our host R.M. Engelhardt read what he described as a “kind of an ode” titled “Doomsday Song,” then “Goals” which was a sort of list poem of things to do, with references to dead poets such as Ambrose Bierce & the more recently dead Jim Harrison — seems to me one of the things that needed to be on the list would be “quit smoking” to be able to live longer than Harrison did.

John Allen seem to like this venue & returned again to read from his 2nd book Lumiere, a series of vignettes about the poet Paul Celan, then a couple of surrealist poems by the “San Francisco Renaissance” poet Laurence Weisberg (1953 - 2003) from the chapbook Phantomatic, “She Wears the Face of the Hour” & “Grail.” 

The final poet of the night was the night’s 2nd virgin, Will Grady with a descriptive piece about being on a hike in the wilderness, inspired by the platitude “all who wander are not lost” (or, perhaps, "all who are lost are not wandering"). 

So, you will have to stay in touch with social media, or the listings on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild to find out if this venue moves to another day of the month (now currently on the 1st Monday). 

Third Thursday Poetry Night, February 15

On a post-Valentines night there was a small, but intense group of poets gathered for the open mic & to listen to our featured poet Kathleen Ann Smith. But 1st I invoked the Muse for the night, sadly the recently gone North Country poet Stuart Bartow. Stu had been a featured poet here in October, 2017 & has published a number of poetry collections including Reasons to Hate the Sky (Word Tech Editions, 2008), & Green Midnight (Dos Madres Press, 2018) among others. I read from his Haiku collection one branch (Red Moon Press, 2019) the Haibun “Fable” that I had read recently to the ocean at Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA, to mark his passing, to which I had appended my Haiku (to Stu):

does it matter to

read poems of a dead poet in

bed or at the beach?

Then on to the open mic, with Philomena Moriarty up first, with poems relating to her practice as a therapist, “Baggage” about the stuff from the past, quoting James Baldwin, then her newest poem “My Mind is Looking for a Problem.”

David Gonsalves confessed that “I don’t know what it is yet” to describe his humorous piece about trying to write what he thought might be a sonnet but ended up too long.

Elaine Kenyon was back this month to read the 2 poems she should have read last month, Stu Bartow’s poem “Lust” from his collection Green Midnight, then her piece “Inspired by 'Lust',” her poem imagining visiting him, but now he is gone, a tender poem of appreciation.

In honor of Valentines Day, I read a couple old love/lust poems, “On a Poem by e.e. cummings” (with a dash of Robert Desnos), then a shorter piece “Gods.”

The night’s featured poet Kathleen Anne Smith read from her book Let the Stones Grow Soft (The Troy Book Makers, 2023). Many of her poems were looks back to earlier time, not so much as nostalgia but to contemplate the images & lessons of the past. She began with a poem titled “What the Old Lady found in the Shoebox,” the a poem where her cat interrupts her painting, & she remembers an old lover (“Green Tee”), & the sad love poem “Sargasso Sea, Sunset.” Then a series of melancholy poems on lost loves, “Among the Leftover Women,” “After our divorce, at our nephew’s wedding, I’ve lost the notebook …” the title serving as first line of the poem, “To Heathcliff, on Finding your Photograph, after Half a Century,” “Before and After the End,” & the vividly descriptive “I Revisit My Childhood Home with an Imagined Grandchild.” She ended with a couple of poems with a more recent focus, “Midnight, after the October Hurricane,” & “2021, Remembered in December” taking stock of the year. There are plenty more of her poems in Let the Stones Grow Soft to savor over time.

This reading series that always includes an open mic, as well as a local or regional featured poet, takes place each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, starting at 7:30PM. Your donation helps support poetry programming in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.