Writers Mic, May 14

Another Zoom open mic, usually back-to-back with Charlie’s Bennington Zoom, as it was this night. But for one reason or another it has been months since I’ve been able to squeeze this one in — but here I was (wherever “here” may be).

David Graham was here too, with a new poem, responding to Wordsworth’s quote, “the child is father of the man,” David’s poem titled “The Boy Alive” with images of water & the last hours of daylight.

I was next, & since I haven’t been here since I wrote this year’s "Birthday Poem," I read “Self-Portrait with Cat” in which I introduce my new companion, Balthus, then a poem inspired by news images of flaming Tesla’s “Fire Elon.”

Alan Catlin read a poem inspired by poet Guy Reed, “On Not Writing My Ars Poetica” then read an ekphrastic poem with a long title about driving out west in a nightmarish California (Alan is good at these nightmare scenarios). 

Julie Lomoe read a more cheery poem, “Sunny May Monday,” with her cat, then a piece with allusions to the Opus 40 outdoor art installation in Saugerties, “Death by Blue Stone,” a  personal essay about her fall that resulted in a subdural hematoma some years ago that you may have heard about.

Elizabeth Lockman also read a poem with a cat in it (seems to be a night of felines), “The Creamsicle Girl Dreams of Oranges” which was a response to the ekphrastic challenge in Rattle magazine; then read a prose poem titled “What God Does in His Spare Time Occasionally” in which a strange thing happens to a Bible.

I’ve missed Scott Morehouse reading his raucous imaginary tales, but got a good dose tonight with his piece, “A Howdy Doody Wedding,” written like a news item, 2 former child members of the show’s audience marry years later, with appropriate costumes for the ceremony.

Susan Carol Jewell, as she does often, offered up another Rattle ekphrastic piece, “The Simple Act of Blessedness” that was about bones, & perhaps marriage (again). 

A great surprise was a poet in from South Africa (one of the advantages of Zoom), Theo with an untitled piece in rhyme, where words are his refuge,  & “a promise of beauty;”  then a poem about how hate is a virus, “Dear Life,” but where love conquers hate. Later Theo took advantage of extra time at the end extended by Jackie to read a complex meditation on a simple phrase, “Never Say Never.”

Another new poet for me was Mosa who read 3 Villanelles (!), the first in short lines, the next from a prompt about “the Night walkers,” the last titled “Where the Light?”

Our host, Jackie Craven, read at the very end, what she described as “a silly absurdist prose poem,” a surrealist poem beginning  “My unborn child lives in a halfway house… “ What would André Breton say?

One can find the Zoom link to this monthly open mic at the WritersMic Facebook page 

then join it on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM Eastern (USA) time.

2nd Tuesday All-Genre Open Mic Out of Bennington, November 8

This, too, has become a regular on my poetry calendar, especially because I can stay home — it’s on Zoom. The host is Charlie Rossiter out-of-Bennington, who likes to do 2 rounds of 1 poem each.

Charlie put me 1st on his sign-up sheet & since we were close enough to Halloween I read 2 poems on that theme, in the first round a ghost poem, “Photo at the QE2, 1991,” then for the 2nd time around “Witches in my Attic.”

Sally Rhoades began with a poem written this Summer at a Provincetown workshop originated by the late Stanley Kunitz “Nonpareil for my Father;” in the 2nd round a piece written during the pandemic “No School Buses.” 

Kenn Ash’s 1st piece titled “Parallel Presence” was an eco-poem on bat guano; in his 2nd round a new, political piece “Single-Minded.” 

Bridget read 2 short poems from her series “Out of the Corner of My Eye” one on the flight of crows, & one about the secrets under the leaves; later a piece titled “Almost Americana” inspired by a Yelp review. 

Charlie, our host, in the 1st round read “Thanksgiving Letter” about the perfect turkey; in the 2nd round notes from the news during the Trump era salvaged from the old notebooks.

Julie Lomoe’s 1st round piece was titled “My Womb Dome” a long, rambling prose memoir of her involvement in the early women’s movement in NYC; then later, “Gin on the Rocks” from her series about the time she fell (did you know she had a sub-dural hematoma a few years ago?).

Tom Nicotera battled computer issues again, but was able to read the descriptive “Take Out“, then later, at the end, a piece beginning “we are all ghosts here” on aging & death.

But for now we ghosts remain above ground & hopefully will be back for the next 2nd Wednesday all-genre open mic out of Bennington (Vermont, that is). If you haven’t joined us & want to be “here,” email Charlie at charliemrossiter@gmail.com & ask for the link.

WordFest 2019 — Up the RiverLaunch , April 17

Since 2013 AlbanyPoets has been putting out the annual journal of poetry, art & photography, Up the River. This year the launch party was held as part of WordFest 2019 at Restaurant Navona in Albany, NY. The reading by selected authors from the journal was noteworthy both by the invited poets who did not show up & by the stellar work of the writers who did show up. Mary Panza was the host, asking a few questions of each reader.

The first of the 4 readers who did show up was Matt Galletta who began with a piece that had been published in Up the River One, “Mixed Tape.” Other poems included “These Are the Miracles,” the very short “Dear Diary” (in the current UTR), “Election Night,” “Litter Box,” “Jessica Christ” (with, he said, paragraphs & stigmata), & learning how not to fly “8 Years Old.”

Robert A. Miller read poems on a variety topics, “Speaking with Turtles,” “Meditations in New Hampshire” (both in the current UTR), a poem about waking up “Go Figure,” “The Good Guys Must Win,” “My View of Medicine,” & “My Superficial View.” He said he had his first publication of a poem only 5 years ago, & is inspired by the work of Stanley Kunitz.

Mary Cuffe Perez was once a featured poet in the Third Thursday series I run back in 2000 when it was at Café Web on Madison Ave. Tonight she read from a chapbook in-progress titled “Why Meringue Fails” pieces of memoir about using her mother’s cookbook “Fannie Farmer,” her aunt’s young male companions “Greenwood,” & “Surprising Grace.” In answer to the question “what inspires you?” she answered “every little thing.”

Tom Bonville who was a much-more recent feature at the Third Thursday Poetry Night back in March had planned for 3 more readers here & only brought the poem that is in UTR 7, “What If Everybody Got Gold Stars” a marvelous piece of memoir, of stealing colored stars from the desks of nuns. He said his work springs from his working class background growing up in Troy.

You can find Up The River, Issue 7 on the AlbanyPoets website.

Book Launch: Canyons, August 19th

It’s been a busy poetry week (check out my Blog if you don’t know what I’m talking about), but Friday night was open after a martini happy hour so I was off to Troy to a storefront on 2nd Street, Publications Studio, for a performance/reading/book launch for Canyons, a new book by Albany poets, artists, publishers James Belflower & Matthew Klane.

Matthew & James are known for organizing the Yes! reading series at the Albany Center Galleries & for their innovative pairing of readings with music, visual art, even dance. They are both writers of works that stretch & twist the boundaries of what we consider “texts”. Matthew is one of the publishers of flim forum press & both he & James have a number of chapbooks under their belts from various small, experimental presses.

Tonight’s performance included a table full of electronic devices & their attendant cables & wires that James used to produce a sound-scape from recordings of birds, conversations, street sounds as well as the requisite electronic bleeps, pops, screeches & feed-back, while Matthew & James took turns reading sections of the text, & with a multi-layered image projected on the store-front’s wall. It was a decidedly different experience from the book itself, though not divergent.

Canyons is a beautifully produced book (by Patrick Kiley at Publication Studio, Troy, NY) of text, images & text&images inspired/engendered by the explorations of the Grand Canyon by “Wes” Powell in 1869 (& later in 1871/2). I can’t tell how much of the text is sourced in Powell’s writing or the photos (taken for stereoscopes of the time), but Canyons is more of an independent work of art rather than a document of American history. I’m still enjoying my copy.

You can find images from Canyons & more information about the book at James Belflower’s website.  He also indicated that the recording of the sound-scape of the performance would eventually be posted there as well.

Chris Funkhouser, Nedd Ludd & Me

Chris Funkhouser at the QE2, August 1992

I read with interest this entry by Chris Funkhouser, “In audio practice VII: Albany O!” about his early years in Albany. I remember Chris as an innovative & engaging performer of poetry at Albany venues such as the QE2 & the Boulevard Bookstore. In this piece he mentions the issue of The Little Magazine put out in 1995 as a CD-ROM, & how now, in 2014, “Unfortunately, the disc does not function on today’s 64 bit Windows systems, which means [it] is unplayable as originally designed.”

I don’t often get to say “I told you so” but …

In response to the publication of the CR-ROM Little Magazine, I wrote an article, an “op-ed piece,” that was published in the Times-Union on December 30, 1995. In my article I wrote about the (early) computers/word-processors that I used at work & my home computer (an Apple II-E), & how I had a book of poetry on my shelf that was published in Albany in 1904, how easy it was to read the book, but how impossible it was for me to “read” the CD-ROM Little Magazine. I wrote:

I even have a book of poems published in 1824. I don’t need any special equipment to read it. I doubt that in 2024 anyone who still owns a copy of the CD-ROM [Little Magazine] will still be able to read or “interact” with it, given the current rate at which such formats are being replaced by “more advanced” versions.

It seems one didn’t have to wait that long for the CD-ROM to become unreadable.

To be fair, at that time only about 3% of Americans had ever used the “World Wide Web” (aka Internet), while now Internet access is ubiquitous. But also, the original T-U article on the CD-ROM quoted one of the editors of the Little Magazine as saying “the days of reading a pocket-sized volume of poetry down by the river side” are coming to an end, & that hasn’t happened either.

I had also sent this article (by real-mail) pseudonymously as “Nedd Ludd” to a variety of literary & arts publications & it was picked up by FYI, the print newsletter of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

When the Times-Union accepted my piece for publication (I used my real name because they require that & I also knew some of the staff there) they asked me for a short poem which they printed in a box with the article. This is notable because the Times-Union has a policy of not printing poems. Still yet another strike for Poetic Terrorism.

Up The River: Issue Two

For the second time in a year AlbanyPoets.com, has issued a print “journal of poetry, art & photography” Up The River in conjunction with the annual WordFest celebration. While the Capital Region of New York State is rich in readings, open mics, & other spoken word performances, print venues have been rare. Issue Two, edited by Jill Crammond, Kevin Peterson, & Thom Francis contains 62 poems from 43 poets. While there is a healthy dose of poems from poets in the Capital Region, most of whom would be familiar to anyone who attends open mics on a regular basis (or who read my Blog), the work of poets from all across the country are included.

Flipping through the zine I was intrigued by the West Coast poems of Richard Whitlock, “Subdividing Heaven and Earth in Downtown LA” & “Blue Notes for Fireball Whiskey & Ginger Ale,” but when I looked in the back of the book there was no bio (I do like finding out who these poets are as people). When I looked up his poems in the table of contents they were attributed to one Jeffrey Alfier, who is listed on the Poets&Writers website as a left-coast poet (one who also lists Richard Hugo as a “favorite author,” as does Richard Whitlock). But nothing like that for Richard Whitlock. Hmm? A bit of sloppy editorial production? Who is Richard Whitlock? Jeffery Alfier? I liked the poems whomever they were by. But, was this sloppy, or intentional, or something else?

The poems by the local poets are welcome additions to my shelf of pieces I have previously only heard at fleeting readings. But some of the out-of-area poet’s poems, while intriguing poems, were strangely similar to each other, aleatory, & synchronistically in close proximity in the book, notably the poets Art Heifeitz, Raffi Kiureghian, & John Grey.

Fernando Pessoa the Portuguese poet is reported to have as many as 72 “heteronyms” — personas under which he wrote poems, complete with individual biographies & distinct poetic styles. After all, it’s only words, & as they say about The Buddhist Theme Park, “It’s all an illusion.” No matter what, Up The River a fine collection of poems, ones I will keep at my bed side to indulge in before the reality of the night’s dreams.

Another thing I don’t get is the touting of being a “Pushcart Prize nominee” in a poet’s bio (not just in Up The River, but everywhere else these days). Small press publishers can nominate anyone they have published in the past year for a Pushcart Prize. Obviously it is to the publisher’s advantage to nominate someone, anyone, that they have published so that if, perchance, the poet wins the prize, the publisher benefits from the publicity & extra sales. I’ve been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, & as my father often said, “That & a token will get you on the bus.”  I have never gotten a prize (or a token) -- it’s like your Mother saying “you’ve been a good girl.”  If you get the Pushcart Prize, then brag about it.

Do buy Up The River, particularly if you don’t have many poems around your house, & even if you do, then Support Your Local Poet. Go to AlbanyPoets.com to order your copy.

An Anthology of the Albany Vortex

… or, everything on the internet is forever, including things that were not ever on the internet.

My first foray (second, actually) into small-press publishing was An Anthology of the Albany Vortex, published by Bert Schultz's Cominsane Press in 1973. I served as editor of this collection of poems & other adolescent musings by myself, Charles Dugan, Joe Figel, Hugh O'Connor & Bert Schultz. The collection was centered on (& inspired by) a mimeographed zine, Naitnecniv that Charlie, Joe & I had produced in high school & that was subsequently banned ("squashed" actually) by our school principal. In recent years I've read my introduction from the book that describes this incident at Banned Books Readings sponsored by the local ACLU chapter.  I think it's still a good read & has held up well over time.

Recently Bert sent me this link from Google Books: here  -- note the generic graphic for our cover art. If you click through the Amazon links you will find there is one copy for sale from Jeff Maser, Bookseller  for $25.00 (!).  Hell, they sold for $5.00 in 1973 money -- & Bert tells me he still has a box of them left.

If anyone out there wants a copy, email me & I will put you in touch with Bert Shultz. Then I guess you can turn around & sell it on eBay for $25.00 -- Good Luck!

Rootdrinker Institute & Benevolent Bird Press

For some months now I've had on my desk (rising & falling through the various strata) a stack of chapbooks, broadsides & newsletters from Alan Casline & his DIY small press, Benevolent Bird Press, & his Rootdrinker Institute. The "statement of purpose" from the Rootdrinker Newsletter says that they "encourage artists, musicians, writers, and crafters to use local images, lore, and legends, along with the artistic inspiration and creative visions of those people who before them by advocating interest in nature, local history, and local traditions." Gee, sounds like Emily Dickinson, or Walt Whitman, or William Carlos Williams, or Charles Olson, even Frank O'Hara.

The chapbooks include Heat Wave by Barbara Hatch Vink, Harvesting Silence by Dennis Sullivan, Alan Casline's own Some Thursday Night Poems, & a funny, spurious The Annals of Perious Frink, a compilation from the local writers in Casline's stable (some already mentioned).

The broadsides are attractive works 8 1/2 x 11 inches, short poems illustrated by one of Alan's photos or hand-printed block prints (as are many of the covers of his chapbooks). The poems tend toward "Nature" poems, but then that includes human Nature as well as birds & snow & rivers. The broadsides include poems by Alan Catline, Art Willis, Dennis Sullivan, obeedude (Mark O'Brien), Barbara Vink, Dale Hobson, Albert Glover, Tom Corrado, Cathy Anderson, Stephen Lewandowski, Mike Burke and Alan Casline.

Also in the pile was a collection of "history, folklore, poetry, natural history, art, photography," Normanskill: Watershed Anthology, designed & edited by Alan Casline. It is a very attractive & informative gathering of, well, what it says, "history, folklore, poetry, etc." A sequence of my early love poems are situated along the Normanskill & one of Alan's color photographs actually captures our "secret spot." The anthology includes work by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the section from the beginning of The Song of Hiawatha that mentions the Tawasentha (today's Normans Kill); an essay & poem by early 20th Century "farmer poet" W.W. Christman; essays by Allison Bennett & Cathy Anderson; & poems by Mimi Moriarty, Art Willis, Alan Casline, Barbara Vink, Tom Corrado, Dennis Sullivan, Edie Abrams, Mark O'Brien; & reproductions of paintings by Kay Levine.

Together these documents & poems & visual art are what is best about this DIY age & it's inherent paradox: the technology makes it possible for anyone to put out attractive, well-make work in simple, inexpensive formats. Rootdrinker & the Benevolent Bird Press is preserving & presenting the work not only of some of our fine local poets, but also the work of lesser-known or forgotten local writers & historians. Talk to Alan the next time you see him at a poetry event (he's the big guy with the big hat), or write to him for information:

Alan Casline
P.O. Box 522
Delmar, NY 12054

Other:Eight

The ever-evolving Other: ___ -- the editors say they are moving from Quarterly (& even less-frequently than that at one time early on) to monthly, soon, like next month -- out wherever you can find it, from AlbanyPoets (add the .com if you look for them online). I got my copy at the open mic at Valentines recently & recommend that if you want a copy, come to LarkFest this Saturday & look for the poetry readings behind the port-a-potties, or to Poets Speak Loud on September 24 at the Lark Tavern; if you can't get there, try emailing them at info@albanypoets.com.

This issue has 21 local writers/poets & like a printed open mic everything from the sublime to the ridiculous, or almost ridiculous. Many of the open mic poets are included, like The Poet Essence, Shaun Baxter, A.C. Everson & Alan Catlin. But we all know that there are plenty of poets out there who for one reason or another can't or don't get to open mics & stay home scribbling. So the great service & dis-service this zine does is bring some of them to us.

Some in this issue are obviously just starting out, like when we see the "virgins" at open mics; some have been around awhile & really need to read some poetry that has been written since the middle of the last century; & of course there are the con artists (I didn't know you could get a degree from the NYS Writers Institute) & mis-guided. So I've avoided embarrassing anyone by not mentioning names. Hopefully some of those published for the first time in these pages will read poems other than their own, & keep writing.

There really is no one else any longer printing local poetry on a regular basis. This is the great service this fine little zine does for the writing community, as well as promoting the open mics in this area.

But there is one more little issue I must deal with (you figured there had to be something, right?). In Ford McLain's bio he states he was born in 1968, "one of the worst years in American history." Now that takes self-deprecation to a new nadir. I mean, most of us who lived through that time know what fun it was; there are whole books written about that one year, for example Ed Sanders' 1968. Maybe 1969 was better. But then little Ford was only one & wouldn't remember that either.

Metroland Readers Pick: Best Local Poet

Congratulations to R.M. Engelhardt, for the third year in a row, for coping this much coveted award.
Also, congratulations to Mary Panza for being "No. 2", but we all know she is always Number One in our hearts.
And can anyone can tell me what was the last poetry reading/open mic "Taina Asili" has been to? In fact, what was the last reading/open mic Rob attended (other than his feature at NightSky - see my Blog on that one)?

Anyways, the official results are:
Rob: 3 votes
Mary: 2 votes
Taina & me (we tied): 1 each.

Hey, that's Democracy at work. Isn't that why our troops are in Iraq?

Home Planet News -- all the news you need

I've just received the latest issue of Home Planet News & reading it reminded me of how important this modest, newsprint zine is to the modern poetry scene. HPN was founded in 1979 by Donald Lev and Enid Dame & is still edited by Donald after Enid's passing. The current issue is Number 56, Winter 2007 & contains its usual eclectic mix of poets and reviews of poetry books by poets. This issue also has two themed sections, "Poems on Holidays" and "Men at War". Donald has included my poem, "What Passover Has Taught Me" in the Holiday section. And I want to point out Enid Dame's "Holiday Poem" as one of my favorites of all time. At the noon peace vigil in Albany, we handed out a flyer the week before Christmas with excerpts from this poem, and I read it as my "muse" at the start of the Third Thursday open mic in December.

I won't list everyone, but some of my favorite poets & people include Alan Catlin, Will Nixon, Roberta Gould, Matthew J. Spireng, Shirley Powell, Robert Milby, Joan McNernery, A.D. Winans, Amy Ouzoonian, Peter Lamborn Wilson, George Wallace, Donald (of course) – phew! You need to find out everyone who is in it, so go get a copy. You can sometimes find copies for free, particularly where Donald is reading, either as a feature or at an open mic (like the Colony Cafe in Woodstock). Or, better yet, send him $4.00:
Home Planet News, P.O. Box 455, High Falls, NY 12440. Tell him I sent you.
--DWx