2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, January 12

After 3 years at the rich space that was Collar City Mushrooms, & before that limping through the pandemic, & more years before that at the Arts Center of the Capital Region where we were first given the space to create this opportunity for our local writers, we, me & Nancy Klepsch, have found a new home at Alias Coffee on 4th Street in Troy. And there was full house to start us off, some inadvertent audience members who had just come in for coffee & conversation, but many of our regular 2nd Sunday poets, such as Rhonda Rosenheck who was first on the list; she read a poem titled “The Clark” that was like a poetic walk thru that esteemed museum, then a new poem whose title I missed. Anne R. read a memoir piece about a best friend, “Nadine’s Toad.” 

Mary Panza’s 2 poems were both about walking barefoot, the first, “Muscle Memories,” was about how walking barefoot brought back a memory of walking barefoot in Troy, & then another Troy poem, a memory of her father ("that bastard") & responding to her daughter’s question, “how do you walk in high heals.”

I read an eco-poem commissioned last Earth Day by Mark Tremont (who left us last week), “2 Dreams,” then a bit of automatic writing “The Moon is a Damp Alley.” David Gonsalves read 2 different poems, “Flute Song,” & “Elephants” (they leave the room). Joel Best is another regular at this monthly open mic, read a poem titled “Eldridge” in which an old relationship comes back to him in a poem. 

Our co-host, Nancy Klepsch, read a poem for her friends in Los Angeles as the fires raged, then, the hysterically funny “The Women from Long Island (The Queer Version)” performed in authentic Longisland dialect. Kim Henry made a rare open mic appearance to read a couple untitled pieces, the first an emotionally heavy conversation over dinner about her father, the second set on a plane to Rome addressed to her daughter? or to an early version of herself? Rachel Baum, who hosts the open mic at the Saratoga Senior Center, read a poem about a dysfunctional family “Dracula Jesus Christ Super Star.” 

Avery Stempel had made his space at Collar City Mushrooms on 2nd Ave. available to us for this open mic since August 2021 until his landlord sold the building; but as a poet, he was back to join his fellow poets, he talked about the move of his mushroom farm up to Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, like exchanging animals, space, the kind of changes that we — & the natural world — does all the time. Julie Lomoe read from her new book a poem written 8 years ago, “Red Alert,” a memoir of 1962 & the fear of dying in a nuclear holocaust while fucking her boyfriend, the another a rambling memoir triggered by Charles Mingus’ “Eclipse” [I try to include links to the poets’ work online but when I went to Julie’s website to get a link to her self-published book of poems I got this response, “This site can’t be reached: www.creativecrone.net took too long to respond.” — maybe she fell asleep).

The final poet for this afternoon, Ash, said it was her 1st time in Troy & I suspect she & her companion had shown up for some coffee & conversation, then found themselves in a poetry reading! She recited 2 pieces from memory, one about warm hands in a cold bed, the other about a snake in a garden about death, both rich in vivid, bright images that great poetry requires.

Well, one never knows who might show up, do one? We hope we can continue on here at Alias Coffee Bar, 219 4th St., Troy, NY — like the title says, every 2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose — bring your best — & your worst.