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.