Third Thursday Poetry Night, October 17

This night’s featured reader was long-time Albany poet Francesca Sidoti, but before she read we got into the list of open mic poets. And our Muse for the night was the spirit of Tom Nattell (1952 - 2005), October being his birth month, & I read from his 1992 chapbook The Columbus Fantasies, #23.

Sylvia Barnard was up first on the sign-up sheet, she read from & about a gift “Moleskin Diary for My Daughter.” 

Tim Lake has not been here at the Social Justice Center for quite some time, & he read about Leif Erickson (whose day is celebrated on October 9) in his poem “Vineland,” who got to what we now call North America well before Christopher Columbus set out from Spain.

Don Maurer was here for the first time, but he has a poem in this year’s Poetic License exhibit, his poem tonight was titled “Scars” in 3 parts inspired, by the Erie Canal & the accumulated trash in our homes. Sally Rhoades writes often about growing up in the North Country, & read a piece of prose, “Summertime,” recently published in an anthology put out by the Public Library in Malone, NY. Harry was here for the first time, but said he has read at other open mics in the area, he read “Vicissitude,” like an angry letter in loose rhyme. 

The first photo I have of Francesca Sidoti (see the photo above) is from a reading at the Half Moon Cafe on lower Madison Ave., dated January 28, 1990. Now she has published a crisp edition of her poems, Civil Twilight and Other Transitions (Schodack Spring Press, 2023) from which she read a generous selection, as well as others. She said that her theme tonight was “friends, family & current events,” mentioned the purple lights on many of the buildings in Albany for Domestic Violence Month, & began with a poem titled “Night Combat” on that theme. “Festivals” was a foray into Dante’s terza rima on the theme of Autumn rituals, then a prose memoir, “Grandmother Had a Box of Thread.” Her poem “Tuesday” was about hanging out with friends in the Summer; “Haunted Labor” was for honoring workers & people working in the trades; & “Gloucester” was a memory & celebration of vacations in that city by the sea. “Politext” was a letter/meditation on friends who may not be; the title poem, “Civil Twilight,” addressed the prison-industrial complex (where she works). Then on to a recent poem, not in the book, titled “Artillery.” She ended with “Champ,” requested by her partner Jonathan Riven, about the Lake Champlain monster, a poem she read at April’s Word Fest.

Following the break we returned to the open mic list & I read a poem for the World Series (but one not in my chapbook Baseball Poems) “Baseball October.” Edie Abrams followed with a little tale with a punch-line titled “The Daughter.” David Gonsalves also had a tale to tell, this set in a Biblical apple orchard, “Eve of Distraction.” Tom Corrado is up to number 784(!) with his “Screen Dumps,” the random ramble of his associations.

Since Jonathan Riven has a close personal relationship with tonight’s featured poet, she was able to strong-arm him into signing up to read; he read one of his favorite poems, “The Cremation of Sam Magee” by Robert Service. The night’s final open mic poet will be the featured poet next month, John Allen, so he gave us a short preview, a poem published in Spectral Realms, “Poisoned Moon,” a dense, associative weave of words & images. 

We gather here at the Social Justice Center each third Thursday of the month for an open mic & a reading by a local or regional poet; start time is 7:30PM, your $5.00 (suggested) donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.