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).