Third Thursday Poetry Night, August 21

The number 1 slot on the open mic signup sheet was still open as we were about to begin & at that moment the poet Sylvia Barnard was dropped off at the door — Sylvia likes to be number 1 so that she can relax & enjoy the other poets, so she filled I wrote her in to that empty slot immediately, but read 2nd because the next reader was about to read.

Kim Henry, 1st but had signed up 2nd, read a poem without a title, a result of a meditation on her past herself. Sylvia read a poem from a trip in July to the UK, “Southwark Cathedral” with an exhibit of peace doves, & an introduction on the cathedral's history. Sally Rhoades, a dancer, read a poem on dance, “They Got So Loose I Could Fly.” 

Amanda said that she had read here previously & was back, read a funny piece about talking with AI (Co-pilot) about problems at work. Thom Francis, the President of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, read “Birthday” about an aged woman blowing out the candles all alone. Mark O’Brian read another of his “location” poems written as if a newspaper article, this one, “Hannibal,” a Western NY town.

The featured reader this night was Judith Kerman. She began, & continued, with poems that pretend to be, or are, definitions, from her book Definitions (Fomite Press); her first example was “Diaspora” in 9 small parts, images, obliquely, historically responding to the dictionary definition; this was followed by the witty, philosophical “Algorhythm.” Then she introduced her sung poems with “Star Nose Mole,” a midrash sung to notations in the Torah for singing the text. “Canned Soup” was a prose poem, a memoir & meditation on soup, then another song, her oldest, “Deepsea Diver Song,” & a newer song “Woodstove.” She finished with a couple poems, the new “Scoliosis,” on to another based on the Bible, “The Serpent,” “Why I Never Married,” & ended with another definition, “Israel” in 10 tiny parts.

After the break, we were back to the open mic. I read a poem from my series of true stories of the (first) Trump era, #59, recently revised, but originally published in 2019 in the anthology Speak Your Mind: Woody Guthrie Poets, edited by the late/great Dorothy Alexander. Edie Abrams read her poem “Hava Nagila” a series of questions to another poet about their poems. 

Sherell was new here, read a funny piece starting "That’s what I said… " in rhyme written in a parking lot about coming to this open mic tonight. David Gonsalves has been here many times, read a short piece pondering the meaning of the  light of “Fireflies”. 

This monthly reading by a local or regional poet, with an open mic for community writers, takes place each third Thursday of the month at 7:30PM at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY — your donations support poetry events in Albany & the work of the Social Justice Center.