2nd Sunday @2: Poetry + Prose, April 14

What would National Poetry Month be without 2nd Sunday @2? So here we were back among the mushrooms, the co-hosts me & Nancy Klepsch. 

Rachel Baum led off with 2 poems from her new chapbook How to Rob a Convenience Store (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024), “From the Rear View Look Back” & “Mirror,” 2 ways of looking it seems. I followed with a couple of older pieces, from November 2010 a found poem composed of the book titles from The New York Times best seller lists, “Never Let Me Go,” & “Star Maps” about how the Greeks viewed the constellations differently.

Joe Krausman began with one of my favorite poems of his, “A Passionate Accountant to His Love,” then on to “The Great Choir of Being” how everyone dies someday. In a related mode, Tim Verhaegen said he was reading poems about dead people, the first about an aunt he thinks about a lot “Florence Verhaegen: Lots of Times,” the 2nd poem about a young friend of 15 who suicided, “You Said I Was Your Best Friend.”

Tom Corrado is now up to (at least) number 754 in his series of “Screen Dumps,” this one linking the unknown to the beach to 45 rpm records to Henry Miller & Annie Hall. Joel Best’s 1st poem titled “Unsettled” was addressed to that ambiguous “you,” while his 2nd poem was titled “Two Different Endings,” so the doesn’t have to introduce it, he said.

Tom Bonville had only 1 poem, about the death of his “Good Dog.” Co-host Nancy Klepsch read about how she wants a real bagel in her poem “Damn Bagel,” then read a rant against male poets attacking Taylor Swift, “Dear Taylor.” It has literally been years since I’ve seen Ed Rinaldi reading his poems out, today he read a poem about the end of Winter “Squirrel at the Window” (& thinking of the koi in the pond & flowers).

Anne Hoenstein read what sounded to me like a break-up poem, “Prayer of Wicked & Fire,” then read “Song Mountain Intangible” a mix of description & pondering. 

The last reader was new here, Jeided, said she was a nurse, a poet, & an activist about to go to  the West Bank; her 1st poem, “Trigger Warning” was a political rant about Palestine & racism & oppression, her 2nd piece was titled “She Does It,” a portrait of a woman in pain, giving up control -- good to have Jeided here.

It was a nice mix of the regulars, poets from past days, & a new voice. This happens — usually — as the title says on the 2nd Sunday @2, at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave. Troy, NY — but be warned that in June the 2nd Sunday open mic will occur on June 2nd, so that we can all attend the Pride Parade in Albany on June 9.