2nd Sunday @2 - Poetry + Prose, May 10

A handful of poets in the cavernous lobby of the old bank building that is now the arts collective Collar Works, Nancy Klepsch & I the hosts.

First up was a poet here for the first time, Indigo Pearl, who said that she has a forthcoming book, In the Thin Place, check out her website. She began with a poem about what medicine has given her, “The Scar.” Then “Two Young Men,” about a scene at a beach of 2 men in love.

I followed with new poems, one about my son Jack’s whimsical graphic arts projects about the first diner on the Moon, “Jack’s Diner On The Moon: for the Artemis II astronauts,” then a 2-part piece based on a line from an entry in Walt Whitman’s Specimen Days, “Here I sit in solitude…”

David Gonsalves read 2 short poems, “Orphans” about his mother & his late wife’s mother, then the ephemeral translucent “Onion Skin.”

Nancy Klepsch read a tribute poem I’ve heard before & love, “My Mother Was So Cool,” then her ode to Corona, Queens, making me think of a song by Simon & Garfunkel.

Like some love affairs I have had, this open mic was brief & beautiful.

Who knows what you will find if you bring a couple poems to read at the 2nd Sunday @2 - Poetry + Prose open mic at Collar Works, 50 4th Street, Troy NY?