Third Thursday Poetry Night, October 16

Bob Elmendorf, March 1991, 8th Step

Back at the Social Justice Center in Albany with a handful of open mic poets for the featured reader Lance Le Grys to read from his new book. I invoked the Muse of a recent gone poet, well-known in the Albany poetry scene, Bob Elmendorf (1946 - 2025); I read his poem “Chess After Death” from his book The Return (The Troy Book Makers, 2021). 

Sylvia Barnard was in the place she likes best, #1 on the open mic sign up sheet, so she can relax & pay attention to the other poets reading; she read a poem inspired by the play Becky Nurse of Salem recently at Albany’s Capital Rep Theater, about a woman hung in 1692 in Salem, MA, drawing parallels to her own trial of losing her job at UAlbany, “To Rebecca Nurse.”

David Gonsalves read his characteristicly enigmatic poem “The Unfolding” images of throwing down textbooks, among other things.

Elaine Kenyon hosts a poetry open mic at the Schuylerville Public Library on the 2nd Wednesday of the month; the poem she read was an exploration of the word “Over” inspired by a poem by Melissa Anderson who did something similar.

John Thomas Allen gave a rambling introduction referencing some books he had intended to read from but did not, finally settling on a poem from the collaborations of the American Surrealist poets Laurence Weisberg (1953 - 2003) & Philip Lamantia (1927 - 2005); he read Weisberg’s poems titled “Targets” originally published in 1971 in Caterpillar #17, then “Obstacles of Sleep,” both can be found here 

I was next - & last - to read in the open mic, “On Eagles’ Wings,” reacting to hearing the song at a funeral earlier this year.

Lance Le Grys, our featured poet, had been featured here in the past & also featured with his daughter Alex at Poets in the Park. Tonight he read from his new chapbook from Bottlecap Press, Pilate Suite. He said that he has been obsessed with the historical figure Pontius Pilate since teenage years; the poems in the book were written over many years & are not historically accurate. Structured like a piece of classical music with tempo markings as part of the titles, he read “Andante: Pilate Poeticizes;” from the long section “Allegro: Three Dreams” he read “Pilate at Play” & “Pilate in White” & the opening section from “Scherzo: Pilate’s Confession,” written in rhyming quatrains. From his forthcoming chapbook Stray Hunter’s Bullet (Broadstone Books), which he characterized as “a failure in narrative,” he read a brief section, & a piece from a recently accepted book, Fishing Tale. He concluded with a couple poems about his writing shed from the 2019 Views From an Outbuilding (Clare Songbirds Publishing House). He generously donated his honorarium & proceeds from his book sales this night to the Poetry Motel Foundation & the Social Justice Center.

This monthly reading by a local or regional poet, with an open mic for community poets, 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.