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.