Poetic License - Reading & Open Mic, September 22

This is the forth year of the collaboration between the Hudson Valley Writers Guild & the Upstate Artists Guild, to create an exhibit of visual art inspired by poetry specifically submitted for the event, Poetic License. 

The first exhibition of the work was at The Fish Market Gallery in Troy, NY, with a reception combined with a reading of poems by the poets whose work inspired visual artist, as well as others reading in an open mic.

The poets who read who have poems in the exhibit were:

Mimi Moriarty (“Empty”); Tim Maloney (“The Claw Machine”); Pam Jacobson (“Tree Snag”); David Gonsalves (“Page 22”); Andy Fogle (“The House Up the Hill”); Jil Hanifan (“The Mad Lark”); and John Savoie (“Nitzotzok”) read by Dan Wilcox.

Those not in the show who read in the open mic were Susan Morse, Brad Quan Copeland (from a chapbook), Sxr Gripp, S.L. Maurice (from his poetry collection Vibrant Sounds, Colors in Motion), Thom Francis, & Poetic Visionz (who performed from memory & with audience participation).

There were also those magic moments where artist & poet met in person, not just in the world of imagination.

You can see a gallery of photos of all the readers on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, as well as the art in the show on the website for Poetic License.

The exhibit has moved to the Honest Weight Food Co-op, 100 Watervliet Ave., Albany, NY & will be on display until November 16, 2025.

Book Launch:Burning the Ghost Light, September 21

What could be better? Poetry on a Sunday afternoon, at a brewery, & hanging out with other poetry friends: a redhead (Carolee), a blond (Jill), & Avery (the mushroom man) — a most pleasant afternoon. 

The book launch was for poet Caitlin Conlon’s book Burning the Ghost Light (Central Avenue Poetry, 2025) with a reading & reception at Warbler’s Brewery in Delmar, NY. The place was filled with the author’s friends & family, as well as surprised bar customers, & a nice spread of snacks to soak up the beer. I had seen Caitlin read at open mics in Albany sometime ago, enjoyed what I heard, & was curious about her book.

The book is structured as a play in 4 acts, with an intermission. Each of the acts is focused on a specific character, the Mother, the Father, the Lover, & the Self. And yet, it is a very personal series of poems.

Caitlin described Act II as the most “true” with poems written about her father after he died, while Act IV she described as “the most personal.” However, in her reading selections, she got the most emotional in reading “The Lover’s Finale” in Act III. In the poem “The Moveable Future” in Act IV there is the bittersweet line, “All you can do with a memory/ is remember it.”

Caitlin has put together a impressive book tour taking her out to Ohio & Michigan, but if you miss her on the road you can order her book online, or perhaps get one from her if you catch her at a local open mic. As my button says, “Support Your Local Poet!”

Pine Hollow Arboretum Poetry, September 19

Back among the trees, our host Mark O’Brien started us off with invoking the Muse with a poem, “The Phoenix,” by William Golding, better known as a novelist. 

The featured poet, Charlie Rossiter, was back in in town after years in Chicago, & now in Bennington, Vermont, announcing a forthcoming books from Foothills Publishing, & began, as he always does at his readings, with a performance of “Reading Black Snake Solos Listening to Haydn” from his chapbook Evening Stones (Ye Olde Font Shoppe, 1999); then on to a humorous piece about a mail-order catalog, “The Day I Discovered Church Merch.”  Knowing Charlie, as I do, there had to be a few road trip poems, “Modigliani, Me & the Good Vibes Waitress …,” “On the High Road to Taos,” & “Bison Turd in a Peanut Butter Jar at Teddy Roosevelt National Park;” & dead poets poems, “Listening to William Carlos Williams,” & “At the Poetry Party” reading their work. “Memorial Day” was from his years in Chicago; “Remembering Toodles” was about drawing lessons from the children’s books; & a love poem, “Rough Times.” He ended with a poem on death, a new piece, “Morning Thoughts.”

Paul Amidon was first up on the long sign-up list with a poem about a visit to the Emergency Room, “Compassion Optional,” followed by a piece about the difference way of acting between boys & girls, “Adolescence.” The co-founder & host emeritus of this series, Alan Casline, read from his astounding collection of poems based on the I Ching, 64 Changes (FootHills Publishing, 2015), 3 pieces, “When Flexibility Is In the Balance” (#37), “Deliverance On The Day For It” (#40) & “Devotion” (#13). 

Tom Nicotera, who had been a co-feature last month, returned to support his friend Charlie Rossiter, & read a poem for his daughter “June Poppies,” then one about sighting a broad-wing hawk, “Buteo Out the Window.” Our host, Mark O’Brien, read a piece from his series titled “Correspondences” a sonnet based on a newspaper article from 1892, “Maples.”

The linguist Dennis Sullivan read a piece of cunning spiritual advice, “Adios in Any Language Means Adios.” Frank Robinson read a love poem to his wife Therese as a supernova, then a cutting commentary on Donald Trump’s mispronouncing the name of the National Park, “Yo Semite.”

Scott Ogelsby read here for the first time last month, returned tonight with a short prose memoir of 5th grade & a fight with a friend. He was followed by his sister, Rhonda Coullet, who read from her book of poems (whose title I did not note), read “New Year’s Day,” “Animal Justice” (on the January 6 rioters), & “No Children in Church.” Ann Stoney was also here for the first time last month, tonight read a prose poem based on quotes from COVID patients, “We the People - Delirium.” 

Ingrid said that she was a wildlife “rehabilitator” & read a poems based on her experience, “Pelicans,” & “Great Blue Heron.” Frequent flyer here, Edie Abrams, read a piece that might have been titled “Wight” meaning ghost, follows its flight, asks about the next world, then a poem about 2 trees, “Secret Love.” 

The remaining readers were all also “frequent flyers” here. David Gonsalves’ poem “Heading for Home” conflated being on a plane with baseball. Tom Corrado, Master of the Screen Dump, read his first from September 27, 2013, then his most recent, #826(!). Sally Rhoades began with a poem from her book Taking Time (The Troy Book Makers, 2025) “Thistle,” then a new poem written this week, “Mercy Song.”

The poets gather among the trees each 3rd Friday of the month at the Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands, NY at 6:30PM (signup starts at 6:00PM) for a featured reader (or 2), & an open mic for the rest of us — at least until the snow flies.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, September 18

It’s not like I’m trying to fill the MVP Arena, but to have an intense, poetic gang gathered at the storefront of the Social Justice Center is as gratifying as having an overflow crowd. I invoked the Muse, tonight Louise Glück (1943 - 2023) & read her poem “Theory of Memory” from Faithful and Virtuous Night (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014).

First up on the sign-up sheet was Sylvia Barnard who read a descriptive memoir poem about the old family farm in Shelburne, MA. Joe Krausman showed the cover of a book of poems, Late Blossoms by his friend, Barnett Zumoff, then read one of his own poems, “At the Dollar Bargain Store,” a conversation with another customer buying a can of nuts.

David Gonsalves read 2 short poems, descriptive with a dash of humor “Heart Throb,” then “Slipknot.” This was Ian Mack’s first time here reading, which surprised me I guess because I’ve seen him read at other venues around Albany; he read from his book Identity Crises (Recto y Verso, 2024) “Temptation Island” then “Red Eye,” a rant against being an object of a woman’s interracial fantasy.

Valerie Temple said that “life intervened” so that she hadn’t been here in awhile, but here she was; she sang a little ditty about abuse, then a “fairy tale” as she called it, written on her birthday about God & Man & the mess Man made. I finished off the open mic I read a new poem, an accidental sonnet, “The Sound of the Tides,” then, honoring our featured poet, a baseball poem “Dusty Baker.”

I met tonight’s featured poet, Karen Elizabeth Sharpe, at the 1st National Baseball Poetry Festival in Worcester, MA; she is one of the folks who organizes the event & spent a few minutes talking about this year’s festival & the plans for next year. She has been working on a new poetry manuscript, & began with a piece responding to the 90th anniversary of the Loch Ness monster, “Monsters Among Us,” followed by “Safe as Houses, a Duplex” (which is the name of the form of the poem). She read one poem, “Reflections on Sex Lessons,” from her 2023 book from Prayer Can Be Anything, a poem which she described as a palindrome, or a mirror/reflection, as was “Forgiveness” that she read later. “Casino of Love” played with images of gambling & of love; the word “worry” was a repeated refrain in “Lines Written During Another Something or Other” a poem on climate change & stress; “St. Christopher Patron Saint of Travelers Punches Out” was a persona poem; & she brought her well-wrought reading to a close with a tender poem of morning “Autumn Aubade.”

This series continues each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:30PM, with a local or regional writer as the feature & an open mic for the rest of us. Your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the SJC.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, September 14

At Collar Works on a Sunday afternoon, nice to see regulars, old friends returning & folks new to us. Nancy Klepsch & I are the hosts for the open mic.

John was signed up first & read his poems from his cellphone, a poem about recent rain & tears titled “Break,” then an untitled piece beginning “Title undecided…” written in a cemetery. As he finished reading, his “fan club” came in, a group of family & friends who had been searching for parking, so we asked John to repeat his reading which he did.

I did a rare thing for me, I read my handwritten poems from my poetry workbook, the first a reaction to hearing the insipid song “On Eagles’ Wings” at a recent funeral, & a poem about my cat Balthus, “Cat’s Porn.”

Kate Laity was back for a visit from across the pond (as they say) with a mini-course on a Dutch Medieval play about a woman, Mary, who sold her soul to the Devil so that she could learn the Seven Liberal Arts — as opposed to the more familiar German tale of Faustus who sold his soul for power.

Nancy Klepsch read her powerful poem on school shootings, “Learning Targets,” the one for her dear friend Eddie, “Letter from a Live Teacher to a Dead Teacher.” She also showed off her new tattoo of a paw print of her gone dog Eli.

Sally Rhoades read from her book of poems, Taking Time (The Troy Book Makers, 2025) the poem “Non Pareil” about her father, then from her phone about friendship, a trip to Oklahoma & brunch with her friend (& mine too) Katy.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose is at Collar Works, 50 4th St., Troy, NY — read 2 poems or 5 minutes of prose — Free!

Saratoga Senior Center Poetry Open Mic, September 12

Nice to drive up to Saratoga Springs in my new (pre-owned) car, nervous about finding it again after I parked it. Poet Rhonda Rosenheck was filling in for the usual host Rachel Baum, with a room of community writers, & a featured reader who had read here last year.

Margaret Greaves is an Associate Professor of English at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs & author of the book Lyric Poetry & Space Exploration: from Einstein to the Present (OUP Oxford, 2023). But her poetry ranges far & wide, not just science, from imagined characters, to funny family tales, to experiments with forms. She began with a couple pieces she said were in the “confessional mode” of imagined characters in imagined lives, then on to a hilarious piece (that I fondly remember from when she read here last year), “Things My Daughter Said During the Wild Fires.” then one titled “Outer Space is the Suburbs,” & another outrageously funny piece based on the Berenstein Bears series of books, “Bedtime Stories.” Her foray into poetic forms included a villanelle (“villanelles are good for obsessives” she said), “Hypochondria,” & a pantoum about a plane crash into the Alia Marsh Harbor in 2002. She ended hopefully enough with “Everlasting Life.”

Jay Rogoff is a frequent member of this group &, while well-known in the poetry community here, is about to become even more well-known having been named as the next Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs; villanelles seem to popping up like weeds, as he read one he wrote about apples, “At First Bite.”

Leslie Sittner, another frequent reader here, read a poem from a series she wrote on Full Moons, this poem titled “September Full Corn Moon 2020.” In honor of Margaret’s reading I read 2 poems also on astronomical themes, “The Transit of Venus,” & “Star Maps.”

David Gonsalves, also a frequent flyer here, read a cluster of short poems, “Little by Little,” “Cattail Talk,” an untitled piece at the river side, & “Slipknot.”

Elaine Klein was here for the 1st time to read a humorous piece about dolls, “On Another RFK Jr. Morning.”

Our host today, Rhonda Rosenheck, a character piece (not her) titled “Cider Dreams,” & an ekphrastic poem from a photo of a concrete banana.

This open mic takes place each 2nd Friday of the month at the Saratoga Senior Center, 1:00PM, with a  featured poet from the community, & an open mic for the rest of us — Free!