Third Thursday Poetry Night, July 16

This night marked 20 years of the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, the series began back in the Fall of 1997 & was at 2 other venues until moving here in July 2006. The featured poet that night was Donald Lev (1936 - 2018), so on this night I invoked Donald as the Muse, read from his chapbook Adventures at the Upstate (Pamphilus Press, 2007) the poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Thomas B. started off the open mic portion of the night. He said he signed up at #2 hoping someone else would take #1, but no one did. He read a piece titled “Pass Me By” about opportunities missed, the he lightened the mood with piece about stubbing his toe.

I teased David Gonsalves before he read that the night could be seen as contest between himself & the featured poet, Kate McNairy, as to who has the shortest poems; he then read 2 short poems, “Oh Good,“ like a family memory, then “Lost” a child returning to his mother.

Sally Rhoades was back home in Albany, from following the World Cup in various locations, with her husbad & even younger generations.  She  began with a short poem, “The Shacks Along the Road,” a memory from childhood that brings her joy, then a longer, descriptive piece written on the train heading home from NYC, “The Sun is Setting.”

I read a poem about the Bomb, “A Poem for August 6,” then my latest poem card based on an Instagram post offering a prompt, “in another lifetime.”

Featured poet Kate McNairy read from her recent chapbook, When the Cats Yawn (Finishing Line Press, 2025),  mixing in some new poems as well. One of the cats in question, Tigger, is on the cover of the book, but has died, their place taken by 2 cats now. Her poems are short, some are Haiku, & none of the poems in her book are longer than half a page, & most are 6 to 8 short lines. As such she did us a great favor of reading each of the poems twice, a technique favored by writers of Haiku, so that we can absorb a bit more the 2nd time around.  She also grouped her poems by themes, such as the Seasons or times of the day. As an example, here in its entirety is a sample:

Education

Lisa signed

‘never change, be you’

in my yearbook —

Yet remaining

the same got me

nowhere.

Join us each third Thursday of the month at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY at 7:30PM for a reading by a local or regional writer, with an open mic for the rest of us — $5.00 suggested donation, which pays the featured reader, supports poetry events in Albany, & the work of the Social Justice Center.

2nd Sunday @ 2: Poetry + Prose, July 12

There was a full sign-up list for this monthly open mic (not that we couldn’t have squeezed a few more in). The hosts are Nancy Klepsch & me, Dwx. Readers can do 2 poems or 5 minutes of prose.

1st up was Thomas B. who started with a celebratory poem that began, “When I read a good book…” he wants to share it, then an amusing piece about trying to understand the meaning of his own poem. Rhonda Rosenheck’s 1st poem was about food, “Esther’s Domestic,” then she talked about having performed a poem with the Albany Symphony Orchestra for the festival in Waterford, “The Aerie Beneath My Feet.”

Joel Best began with a conversation ironically titled “Soliloquy,” then a funny, outrageous narrative “Twice You Lie,” both with his characteristic wild mix of images & leaps. David Gonsalves read short pieces (of course!), an Haiku “Fish Take Flight,” & “Lost.” 

I read an older piece, inappropriately appropriate for the month about a woman on street corner in an American flag blouse, “Patriotism,” the another piece I recently turned into a poem card, “Parallel Parking.” I was followed by my co-host, Nancy Klepsch, who read 2 experimental, prompt-driven pieces, that may be without titles, an exquisite corpse beginning “a line, a line...,” then one written from a prompt to write a piece with the word three.

Sam Win showed up to connect with the writing community with hopes to publish a book; he read a long piece in rhyme titled “3D Freedom” & handed out business cards to his real estate business. By contrast, Anthony Bernini has been around since the earliest days of the poetry scene here in the late 1980s; he read 2 political pieces, “If You Can Keep It” based on Ben Franklin’s comment about democracy, another piece from the Iraq war, on the birth of words, “Before Iraq” (“Mesopotamia…”). Anthony’s most recent book is Selected Poems (The Troy Book Makers, 2025).

Sam Maurice recited poems from memory from his book Vibrant Sounds, Colors in Motion (Deadman’s Press Ink, 2nd Edition 2025), “The Therapist, The Meteorologist,” & the title poem. 

Annie Borthwick was a late signup who said she was a Troy native, with a story of the places she lived in Troy, some gone now.

Please join us for this open mic for poetry + prose on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2:00pm at Collar Works, an arts collective, at 50 4th St., Troy, NY — Free! & open to all.