Saratoga Senior Center Open Mic, September 13

This was the first of the day’s 2 poetry events, & the 2nd time this week that I’ve driven to Saratoga County for a poetry event — phew! The guest host today was Barbara Ungar, who started the afternoon off with a poem titled “AP Physics” — in honor of the featured poet’s 2023 publication from Oxford University Press Lyric Poetry and Space Exploration from Einstein to the Present.

That featured poet was Margaret (Maggie) Greaves, Associate Professor of English at Skidmore College, who said she is an “aspiring” poet, but mostly a student & a teacher of poetry. Her poems were about her life & the world world around her (& she shouldn't have been so tentative). She read about being a Mom, (“Everlasting Life”), including potty training a toddler in the oppressive heat of Turkey, the hysterical “Things My Daughter Said During the Wildfires,” & “Nocturne” (a “space poem,” with babies). Like the rest of us, she had her COVID poems,”Expecting” (pregnant during COVID), & “Swimming Near the End of the World” (testing positive for COVID while in Turkey). Her husband is Turkish &, in addition to other poems already mentioned, she included a ghazal influenced by reading a Turkish poet; read “Wedding Day” that contrasted wedding photos of her husband’s parents with her own wedding photos; then one titled “First Lesson in the Language;” & the stunningly tender love poem to her husband, “Anatolian Rug With Stylized Animals.” It was altogether an engaging & entertaining reading. I for one would love to read a book of her poems rather than an academic study of the poems of others.

To start off the open mic portion, Barbara read a poem for the late Stuart Bartow, “Sunset on Mars” with a Haiku. David Graham read a poem from 2008 (& still current for this year’s election) “Talking with Uncommitted Voters.” My poem was also on a political theme, “Another Tuesday,” about September 11, 2001 in NYC, & 1973 in Santiago, Chile.

Pat Curtis read what she described as her manifesto on aging, playing humorously on the word “old”. Jackie Craven read 2 poems from her collection of poems, Whish (Press 53, 2024), “Pi huddles in a cloakroom” & “What alien astronauts fear” — it’s a book I’m really enjoying reading. Naomi Woolsey read an essay/memoir about her work in the State Department as an inspector of international schools & an evacuation during the civil war in Libya.

Susan Kress read a new work in-progress, “What It’s Like Now,” pondering the faces of old poets & whether she likes plants more than animals (plants win). Angela Snyder read a descriptive dog-walking poem, “Night,” then one titled “Enough” from a prompt to write about something without naming it. Jay Rogoff finished off the event by reading a deceptively titled poem “Latin Class” (it was a Latin dance class).

This reading with an open mic takes place on the 2nd Friday of each month, starting at 1:00PM, at the Saratoga Senior Center, 290 West Ave., Saratoga Springs, NY.

Poetry Night at the Schuylerville Public Library, September 11

Poet Elaine Kenyon recently started a monthly Poetry Night at the Schuylerville Public Library up in Saratoga County. Over the last couple of years Elaine has immersed herself in the local poetry community, reading at open mics at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs & at the Social Justice Center in Albany, as well as participating in the Poetic License collaboration between the Hudson Valley Writers Guild & the Upstate Artists Guild. In August she took the step to bring a poetry event into her own community.

I took the hour drive up from Albany to check it out & show my support. Ultimately there were 8 of us gathered around 2 tables pushed together in a meeting room off the main reading room of the Library. The room had windows on 3 sides. There was no “stage,” or podium or sound equipment, just people sharing poems, either their own or those that they like written by others. The poems often engendered conversations on the topic of the poems, but not comments or suggestions as in peer-group workshops. And there was no sign-up list, or even a set order of reading; folks just volunteered to read when they felt ready or inspired. It was relaxed & informal.

This being the 23 anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in NYC, Elaine started off with a memoir piece about working in a mental health facility at the time of the attack, & later read other poems. I read my poem “Another Tuesday” about 9/11 2001 & 9/11 1973 in Santiago Chile with the overthrow of the elected government of Salvadore Allende. Geri, who also shared at other moments poems by W.H. Auden, read one of her own, “The Archangel & the Apostle,” about a priest who was killed at the WTC; the priest had been a boyhood friend of her brother.

Margaret, who shared poems by others, read one with lots of repetitions & I asked if it was a villanelle. She didn’t know but Peter then rattled off the details of a villanelle; he apparently had taught literature & worked as a contract lance writer; the poems he read were his own. He had a copy of John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which he passed around to the group.

Peggy arrived a little late, a shared a couple of her poems; she is a friend of Elaine’s. Another friend was Lisa who said she had one of her poems with her but ended up not reading it, instead read a poem about a butterfly by someone else; she also brought brownies. Ian was the last to arrive, & the youngest; he read from a fistful of pages, one torn from a spiral notebook; both Margaret & Geri had him repeat the end of a couple of his poems, perhaps looking for the “punchline”. 

Lots of good conversation & poems from people who like hearing & reading poems, & sometimes writing some of their own. This is a monthly open mic on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, starts at 6:00PM, at the Schuylerville Public Library, 52 Ferry St. I probably won't be back every month, but perhaps every little once in a while.

 

2nd Sunday @ 2: Open Mic for Poetry + Prose, September 8

It’s been a bunch of months since my co-host, Nancy Klepsch, & I have been able to be together at this monthly open mic, it’s one thing or another, but I guess a good reason to have 2 hosts. This day we ended up with 6 poets on the sign-up sheet, 2 who were here for the 1st time.

Billy Stanley was the afternoon’s 1st “virgin;” his 1st poem was titled “Langston’s River Whip,” richly descriptive, side-by-side images of the Hudson River with a river in Louisiana where he grew up; then a poem of looking back, “Instead of ‘I Am,’ ‘I Was’.”

Rhonda Rosenheck read from her mss. “If I Dared in Circus Silks” a very short poem she described as an “ars poetica” titled simply “Poets,” then a piece titled “Wedge Cut” that plays on the word “wedge.”

David Gonsalves is a master of the short poem & he read 2 this afternoon, “School Days,” & “Luck,” a meditation at a tavern after the death of his father.

The proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, Avery Stempel, gave us a brief update on local/regional meetings & panel discussion around New York State Assembly Bill A10375 to decriminalize the use of psilocybin & on New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives; then he read an article he wrote about the experience of people with chronic cluster headaches who have found relief with psilocybin titled “Treating Cluster Headache with Psilocybin-containing Mushrooms” to be published in The Mycophile Quarterly Winter issue.  

Ellen Rook was the other “virgin” & began with a critical piece (from her own experience) “Notes on Online Therapy,” then a piece that blends past experience with the question, “can The Muse be male?” with the title “The Muse Was Wild But I Was Wilder.”

I was the last reader of the afternoon with 2 recent poems, “True Story” inspired by observing birds at my backyard bird bath, then “Books Not Bombs” which is a re-write of an older poem “Buttons Not Bombs.”

Join us any 2nd Sunday of the month at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave., Troy, NY at 2 (like the Man said, 2nd Sunday @ 2: Open Mic for Poetry + Prose), & you can even buy some mushrooms to take home. 

Poetry Open Mic at Pine Hollow, August 16

This open mic, often with a featured poet, is usually held on the 2nd Friday of the month at the Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands, NY, but was rescheduled to this day from last week due to heavy rain. There was no featured poet, instead a marvelous coterie of local poets who read in a round-robin style, which I won’t try to replicate in this narrative.

The poems I read included 2 poems both titled “Joe Krausman;” a poem inspired by Uncle Walt, “Here I Sit in Solitude;” & one inspired by a recent encounter with “Lark St. Jesus.” 

Edie Abrams read about trying to think good thoughts after the death of her mother & after the Biden/Trump debate; another about her mother, “Comfort Cat & Peck Peck Peck;” a descriptive piece about an old teacher, that she began with a quote from the Talmud; a poem about walking with her father in a snow storm in New York City “Questions Unasked;” & one about the experience of “Zooming.”

David Gonsalves read a piece about being in Heaven, “Last Thursday;” one from his obsession with the history of World War I “No Man’s Land;” “Landscapes in 12 Colors;” & “Skyway.”

The aforementioned Joe Krausman read a poem about me (!) titled “Guess Who?” then “Weather Report,” a forecast of life-expectancy; another on mortality, “Weird Musings at Whole Foods;” & a funny tale of a 2-headed person, “Going to a Double-Header Ending in a Tie Game.”

Our host at this series is Alan Casline. Tonight he read “Contemplation of the Season;” a poem written some time ago describing an old man on the subway; one titled “Pile On” (written 10/26/2019); & another seasonal piece, “Song of the Red Tea Flowers.”

Tim Verhaegen read the nostalgic “Summer Sounds in Amagansett;” a poem about going through a box of “Letters;” & a recently written memoir about his youthful days at a 2-year college.

Paul Amidon’s piece “Half-Truth” was about trying to figure out what that means; a poem titled “No Poem;” & one titled “Icebergs.”

The turned out to be quite a varied & fascinating anthology of poems by local poets.

Check out the events listings on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild for information about future open mics at the Pine Hollow Arboretum, as well as other literary events in the Capital District.

 

Third Thursday Poetry Night, August 15

It’s always nice to see a poet friend I hadn’t seen in awhile, & there were a couple of those here tonight, as well the hardcore regulars & even a new voice, to see & hear our featured poet, Bunkong Tuon (aka “BK”). & since BK was the feature & I knew how formative for him was the work of Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994) I decided to invoke Bukowski’s long gone voice as tonight’s Muse; I read an early poem of his, “to the whore who took my poems,” collected in the 1974 Black Sparrow Press Burning in Water Drowning in Flame. Then on to the open mic, or at least the first half.

First up, as she prefers to be, was Sylvia Barnard, with a poem from a trip to England talking about descendants of those from the ancient time, & her own mortality. Alan Catlin followed with a poem from his book Beautiful Mutants (NightBallet Press, 2015) “Hell in a Very Small Place” in the words of a veteran in a bar, on war & killing.

Julie Lomoe was next to read, again from her new book, & read a quote Therese Broderick promoting her work, a series of Haiku titled “Walking my Dog by the Lake in May,” the title of which is a half-Haiku itself. Tom Bonville read a piece about seeing Leonard Bernstein crossing a street, titled “Lenny.” 

BK (Bunkong Tuon) is a poet, professor at Union College, & author of the just-released auto-biographical novel Koan Khmer (Curbstone Books, 20240. Tonight he read from his “Greatest Hits” chapbook What Is Left (Jacar Press, 2024). I have BK’s earlier collections of poems & so was pleased to hear these poems once again. 

He began by talking about discovering poetry through the accessible work of Charles Bukowski, & started off reading a poem about the refuge of the Library, “The Rescue,” from What Is Left, then on to the title poem, reflecting on his life as a refugee & his life beyond. His poem “The Carrying” was about his family escaping, his grandmother carrying him as a very young boy, from the death & destruction in Cambodia. “Debt” was a poem about his father, who BK did not know, then an “origin poem” about the only memory he has of his mother, at her funeral, “Under the Tamarind Tree.” “The Mercy of Memory” was about not having memories about the atrocities that he saw, that other family members remember; “Moon in Khmer” is a poem to his daughter, her existence as resistance, similarly, “How to Defeat Pol Pot” was a poem to children. He ended with the book’s concluding poem “Letter to My Unborn Son” how the future is in the children.

After a break & a chance to buy BK’s books we were back to the open mic. This was Joe Krausman’s XXX birthday but unfortunately he was not here tonight as I read the first of 2 poems I’ve written with the title “Joe Krausman,” 1st published in the 1994 collection of poems & photos, Open Mic: the Albany Anthology (Hudson Valley Writers Guild).

Malcolm Willison was back after a long hiatus to support his friend BK; he read a short seasonal meditation of mortality. David Gonsalves is also a master of short poems, he read the descriptive “Late Afternoon at Sparrow’s Point.” The last poet up was a new here, signed up Peter Ans~h (aka Sensation), & performed an ironic piece about how far we’ve come, on war & peace, the ongoing work, actually tying together many of these themes we had heard this night.

We have been gathering here at the Social Justice Center to read & listen to local & regional poets on the third Thursday since 2006. The open mic starts at 7:30PM, with a featured poet in the midst of the open mic; your donation of $5.00 (more or less) supports local poetry events & the work of the SJC. Please join us -- 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY.