Third Thursday Poetry Night, June 20

Once again a nearly full house, poets supporting their comrade poet, tonight’s featured reader, Susan Oringel. But first I invoked the night’s Muse, the gone poet Kelly Cherry (1940 - 2022), by reading her poem “Prayer for a Future Beyond Ideology and War,” from Natural Theology (Louisiana State University Press, 1988). Then on to some of the open mic poets who had signed up.

Philomena Moriarty was first on the list with a brand-new piece “Two Views About the Same Scene” as a woman takes out the garbage. Joe Krausman is a longtime regular here on the Third Thursday, tonight read a piece titled “Sins of Place,” pondering mortality. Marea Gordett read a sad poem, an elegy for her son’s fiancée who died of COVID, “Elegy in the Nodding Onions.”

Katrinka Moore actually recognized the Muse, Kelly Cherry, then read a Cento titled “A Chance to See What Comes.” Tom Corrado is up to (at least) #764 in his series of "Screen Dumps," this one set in Provincetown, mentioning famous poets & loggers & diesels. Sylvia Barnard read a poem titled “Tulips in the Desert” inspired by a former student living in Arizona, a metaphor for what poets do.

Our featured reader, Susan Oringel, has been busy promoting her new book, Carnevale (David Roberts Books), including a reading at her book launch in March, at Unity Church in Albany. She started with a poem that took place on this block in Albany, “Middle Aged in Spring,” a broken sonnet. She read a generous selection of poems from the section of the book exploring her relationship with her parents, beginning with a couple of poems on Jewish food, “Song of Coney Island” & “Chopped Chicken Livers.” Other poems looked back to her childhood (“My Father’s Workshop,” “November 1963”, & poems about her mother, “Struck,” & “La Vie en Gris.” The poem “House” celebrated being in her parents house after they were gone.

Both of her parents & her partner died within a short time of each other, Carnevale combines poems in a mosaic of meditations on the way relationships continue. She concluded with poems about her deceased partner, “Sunday Ride” with vignettes of her partner’s parents, “Solstice,” the villanelle “Autumn in Montclair,” then ended, appropriately enough with another meditation on mortality, “Carnival.” 

After a short break for Sue to sell books & me to collect donations, we returned to the open mic list, with me reading “Kesha-Undaka” (the Sanscript word for floaters) based on the Lankavantara Sutra. Ellen Rook, sweating a poem, read a portrait “Still Life With Bachelor Uncle…” on his death. John Thomas Allen read an “experimental poem” about the nature of ideology, titled “Star Burst,” inspired by a woman he dated. Tom Bonville was not "experimental" in his poem “Sat Right” about a crooked picture on his wall (& about his friends).

Lance LeGrys read a piece from a new poetry manuscript, “Pilate Suite” (as in Pontius Pilate), “Pilate Poeticizes,” a dramatic monologue. Alex LeGrys followed (yes, they are related) with a piece titled “The Tannery,” a break-up in the midst of the failure of labor unions. David Gonsalves’ read a 3-part poem with a subtitle “Happy Opportunities: Saturday, 18 May, 2024,” 3 brief vignettes. 

Ba Kaiser read “Snapshot 1947,” as she said, “a captured moment of perfect happiness.” Julie Lomoe “sang” a commentary on aging “Old Crone Blues.” As they say in the Blues world, Elaine Kenyon brought it on home & read a short piece inspired by watching National Grid cut down trees, “If Animals Were.” 

Join us each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY at 7:30PM for a reading by a local, regional or national writer, & an open mic for community poets — $5.00 suggested donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.