Third Thursday Poetry Night, May 21

The night’s Muse was the recently gone Mary Lou Streznewski who had been the featured reader here back in March of 2023 & who recently passed away this past April. I read her poem “Women Who Sit on Victorian Porches in Summer” from her poetry collection Sitting in the Shade of My Own Tree (Kelsay Books, 2019). Then on to the open mic.

Avery Stempel was first on the list, he updated us on the legislation introduced to the New York State legislature to legalize the use of psilocybin for medical purposes, then read an excerpt of a longer memoir about the death of a friend, about finding his body. 

David Gonsalves read 2 really short poems (he often does), a pantoum with one word lines “Fam,” then “After,” perhaps a couple after dining outdoors.

Amina had arrive early & had helped me set up the chairs; her poem was titled “Suprnovas In Sudan” about how satellite photos have found evidence of the genocide happening in that war-torn country.

John Allen read a couple pieces, beginning with what he called “an elliptical poem” about a woman he knew briefly, “My Dry Ophelia (for Emilia),” then “The Carnival Tarot” another exercise in emulating the Surrealists of old.

I read a new poem about my son Jack’s fascination with outer space, “Jack’s Diner on the Moon (for the Artemis II astronauts)” mixing in memories of my own early job in a lunch counter with his family as the workers at the diner.

Tonight’s featured reader was Eric Wasileski whom I met through Veterans For Peace. He is the founding President of Daniel Shays VFP Chapter 186, Berkshires, Home of the Mohican. He began by reading from his collection of poems, Live Free (or die) (Human Error Publishing, 2014), “Forward Deployed” about his experience in Operation Desert Fox 1980 (“I knew these people were not my enemies”). Then on to a series of poems not in the book, mostly about his military experience, read from his laptop, although the poem “Bibliophile” he described as “not political” but could be. Earlier, I had shared with him a story from my own military experience during basic training about drill sergeants who would call recruits with long names they couldn't pronounce “Alphabet,” Eric read a humorous poem titled “New Nicknames” about a similar experience.  “Gathering in Ogunquit” was a shift in tone & subject, a  peace walk from Maine to DC in 2024. Then back to a couple poems again from military training, “Poor Deer” about the slaughter of a deer on a firing range  (but no targets died), & the humorous “Yes Sir” about the class distinction between enlisted personnel & commissioned officers (saying “Sir” but thinking “asshole”). He returned to Live Free (or die) for his ending poems, “A Veteran’s Remembrance On Memorial Day” & “Talking About War.” Poetry, another form of peace work.

Please join us at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on the third Thursday of the month for a reading by a local or regional writer, with an open mic for the rest of us — start time 7:30PM, your donation supports poetry events in Albany & the work of the SJC.