The Fine Carnival of Hearts and Souls - Poetry Event, February 19

Another RM Engelhardt event, at the Marketplace Gallery at 40 Broadway, with an unannounced open mic, a missing feature & missing backup musician for one of the remaining 3 features (Rob himself), as well as a featured poet who hadn't written any new poems since the last time Rob featured him a couple years ago. The audience included the (remaining) featured poets, the guys who run the gallery (who read in the open mic), 2 lovely ladies who read in the open mic (& were perhaps stalking me), & me, to listen (since it was a "Listening Party" per the Facebook listing) -- oh, I forgot to mention the dog.

The Marketplace Gallery is fine space across from the Port of Albany with striking & edgy paintings & photos, worth the trip on First Friday, or any other time it is open.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, February 18

A packed house at the Social Justice Center with Daniel Nester's class from the College of St. Rose arriving early for a session with visiting poet Nate Pritts. Our Muse for the night was the recently deceased Lucille Clifton, another great poet gone. But for the open mic Alan Catlin started us off with "Karaoke Killers," a poem based on a recent newspaper article. Tad Richards drove up with Victoria Rivas, our featured poet, & read a poem based on a title that Robert Frost never got around to using, "The Story of the Cigar Box & a Counter-Revolutionary" (somebody had to). Rod Aldrich's poem "When the Snow Never Stopped" was not a prediction, I hope.

The first of the night's student-readers from Dan Nester's class was Chelsea Surprenant with a poem "Recognizable." W.D. Clarke's poem was "a true tale," "The Fisherman" out with his dad, & an unexpected find. Another student, Kristen Bidosky's "Past & Present" was about herself. Daniel Nester's poem was about dopplegangers, "Poem for the Evil Twin Episode of Night-Rider." Melissa Dominguez, another student, said her poem, "Experience," "sounds darker than it actually is supposed to be," perhaps a metaphor about writing about pain.

Tonight's featured poet, Victoria Rivas, read a program of poems about her teaching experiences, but began with a one about aging hippies, "I've been there…" She read from her manuscript Yo, Miss I Need a Pencil, poems about inner-city poor students, including a couple of pantoums with their repeating, over-lapping lines. Her poems were sad, funny, even angry at times & raise broad issues about poverty & the role of teachers in the education system. She touched on ignorance & lack of manners, teen pregnancy, & the innate creative sense children have in spite of the conditions they are raised in.

After the break I read my old poem "Sylvia Plath Slept Here" because she's still dead. The poet sometimes know as "Bird" (Alan Casline) read a retelling of an old native story, "The Adventures of the Great Hero Puloweh, or the Partridge in Algonquin Legends," from an old book. Sylvia Barnard's meditation on "Ash Wednesday" was only a day late. Jason Crane has a new book coming out from Foot Hills Publishing but "I Am Not an Indian" that he read tonight will not be in it. Bob Sharkey has been hibernating but was out tonight to read a poem ("Too Much Old Chat in Her") from a book he has been writing. This was Nan Thomas' first time reading here; her poem "Dance Lessons" was in 3, short sections. Terry Bat-Sonja said it was time for an erotic poem, "With Everything," & it was.

Another student poet, Melissa Gordon, read her "praise poem," her family & herself. Bless was back to perform his touching, funny & ironic poem about a homeless guy, "Man, Old Man." Ashley Martinez, another student, read "Imagination or Reflection" about then & now. The last of the students was Allie Fish with poem she wrote a few years ago about her younger brother who has autism, "Life with My Brother." Passion Poet is on her way to other parts of the country but stopped by to read her moving poem for her uncle James, "Viet Nam." Moses Kash III was back once again tonight to read "From Blood to Oatmeal" ending with Jesus Christ as the black Messiah. The poet Mojavi brought us on home reading a poem off his iPod, "Unraveling," like a tapestry.

Every third Thursday at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY, 7:30PM. More pictures from this event can be seen on my Flickr site.

Richard Boes Memorial Reading, February 13

Richard Boes was a novelist, playwright, actor, veteran of the Viet Nam War, who died last year from cancer. This reading was part of the monthly Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival hosted by Phillip Levine. I had read with Richard at the Colony Cafe (just down the street) & became friends with him during his last year while he was undergoing treatment at the Albany VA Hospital. I also arranged readings/book-signings for him from his novels, The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive (iUniverse 2007) & Last Train Out (iUniverse 2008). Richard's struggles infused his work but his talent turned those struggles into powerful prose, into art.

The afternoon included readings by poets who knew Richard, even some by those that didn't, readings from his works by his friends & remembrances by friends, fellow veterans & family, all ably linked by host Phillip Levine who had worked closely with Richard on his books & plays. Among the poets who read were Stephen Dodge, Paul Clemente, Dafna Rosenblum, Donald Lev, Michael Pacat, Dayl Wise (who had helped organize the event), Larry Winters (pictured at left) & Alison Koffler, Mickie Shorr & Philip Guareni. I was particularly moved by Larry Winters' poems "Nam Brother Waiting at the Station," & "I'm Here Because I've Been There".  Jay Wenk also read from his soon-to-be-published memoir of World War II.

Richard's voice was present in the readings by   from the opening section to Last Train Out, & Dayl Wise & I both read sections from The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive.

Richard's nephew Brett Boes (pictured at left) read his poem, published in the Chronogram, on Richard's death, "The Fallen Soldier," then the recent poem "Love Never Leaves." Other remembrances of Richard's life were shared (in addition to many of those already cited) by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (who knew Richard from film school), Fern Neeson, Branda Miller (another friend from film school), Jane Seiba & Tom Jarmusch (Jim's younger brother who shared a wonderful story of being at CBGB's in New York City with Richard & then credited Richard with saving his life by helping him to get treatment for his substance abuse problems -- in fact I was so entranced by his story that I forgot to take his picture).

It was a lesson on how a person, just by being himself, & despite issues & struggles that destroy others, can touch so many lives, & how being an artist can mean being part of a community that comes together to help those that need it.

In addition to the photos posted here, I am posting more photos on my flickr site.

Sylvia Plath Bake-Off

For a number of years, a few years back, Cheryl A. Rice, held a combination poetry reading & baking contest in February around the anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath (Feb. 11, 1963). Cakes shaped like an oven door were de rigueur & one poet event showed up with his/her head in a cardboard box done up like an oven. And I would always read my poem, "Sylvia Plath Slept Here." A combination of reverence, irreverence & fun. At one point Pillsbury sent Cheryl a threatening letter saying they owned the term "bake-off." Most of us counseled that she should ignore the letter, you can't pay for publicity like that. She did but ended the annual event later for the usual reasons such things fade away: lack of time, energy, venue, etc.

This year I attended a private party at the home of Jacqueline Ahl with this same title, a handful of people in the little house way out in the country. There were cookies decorated like Sylvia or Ted Hughes, sometimes scribed with a line from her poems. Jacqueline has a small collection of some rare Plath ephemera. She read Plath's "The Applicant" & Tad Richard's "Sylvia & Dean," as well as Tad's hilarious "Nicaraqua, Whales and Body Parts." Christopher Wheeling also read a few of his poems & I read once again "Sylvia Plath Slept Here."

Cheryl told me later she was OK with someone else using "Sylvia Plath Bake-Off," but then she doesn't have the legal staff at her disposal that Pillsbury & Co. has. Read a poem, eat a cookie.

Wize Words (at Ballingers), February 11

Like the old TV show, this spoken word series has been "movin' on up" from the cellar bar to the main floor of Ballingers, & this night the place was packed. I got the last available table (because it was small, there was only 1 chair at it & it was right in front of a prodigious speaker) -- lucky me for a great night.

Now, as always, I am open to corrections on spelling of names, or correction of other details, since I'm just listening & have no written program to depend upon. Our host was the big, warm, gentle Bless who worked with the sign-up sheet in his head, for the great variety of poets & performers. The featured performers were the vocal group the fault line.

But first & around them came the poets, some with notebooks, some with scraps of paper & some with just what was written in their memories. Bless began with a piece about what he smelled on a woman one day. Then after Unique did his piece about an old love, I stayed on the theme with "I Want to Read My Love Poems to You…" Kaysan did "Take Another Sip" to reconnect with his feelings. Lots of energy in these poets, & in-between Bless keeps it going. Another virgin (Mr. Jay?) came to the stage about the missing Dads in the neighborhood.

The fault line did 2 sets while I was there & these 5 guys got more sounds out of their microphones with just vocals than some bands I've heard. They laid down bass lines & drum patterns & guitar solos all with their mouths & mics. And they were all over the stage & in the audience. I had to buy the CD.  Bless even used 2 of the guys to back him up on one of his pieces.

Another new poet to the mic, Miss Rain, did a "man-bashin' poem" for the ladies. Bless did one of his signature pieces on "Why Do I Do What I Do" (ending "so why do you spit?") to set it up for Passion to come up to explain why she spits ("because without spit there is no fuckin' poetry"). Sadly, this strong voice is moving on to somewhere else. Nickey Black is a regular at Wize Words & you've got to be ready for him, like his rhyme tonight on a stroll through the hard streets of the ghetto ("I Am the Place").

On a different note, & a very differen kind of high-energy, Miss Naughty Poetry, ended each of her 3 porno poems with a kitten purr & trill & you needed a cigarette after each, the audience in a writhing heap of laughter (& arousal?), I mean her last poem was titled "Suckin' Dick 101." Oh yes.

The Storm is on the schedule of the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the SJC for March 18. Her poem tonight was a rap on a relationship gone bad, with a mean punch-line. Shay's ("Shabina aka Shay") poems on love were a bit more focused, more philosophical, less naughty, but still in your face with "Availability is a Bitch" as the middle poem.

Now I was having a real good time but these old bones can only take so much so I left after the fault line's second set & after Bless delivered a to-the-point rant about where else in this city, state, nation or world can you have such a good time for just $5 -- "fiv' dollas" -- as you can right here at Wize Words. He's right (in fact, as they say here, "that's alright"), so get there next 2nd Thursday & find out for yourself -- Ballinger's on Howard St in Albany, about 8PM.

Live from the Living Room, February 10

With Don Levy our host at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center.

The featured poet was Margot Malia Lynch, poet & roller derby queen ("Mathundra Storm" with the Hellions of Troy). Her poems are first-thought-best-thought stream of consciousness personal manifestos like in "Original Sparks" where she declaims "I am my own shaman." I watched her turn & flip the piece of paper that she had written the poem "Polish Me" on, where she compares herself to a pearl, an original poem scrap. Then on to the ambulatory "Love Walk", & writing poems in "The Electric Moment" with its reference to the Olympic games, then ended with a revenge rant, riffing off her name. She enjoyed the informal setting, the circle of poets & we enjoyed her poems.

I read in the open mic, wearing it, "My Scarf" (a poem is the best revenge), then from my new chapbook from Benevolent Birds Press boundless abodes of Albany "Decoupage Me", then the new poem "The Visit." AC Everson read from her chapbook Love AC Style, "Sweet Dreams;" I love her Valentine standard,"Cupid is a Bastard" even without the piñata; then another piñata piece, "Music Lover."

Jason Crane announced that he has a manuscript accepted by Foothills Publishing & read "Maple Leaf" on his old home, then (another) poem on knitting, "It Isn't the Fashioning", & "At Mr. Frost's in Vermont" (what Don called "a good Robert Frost poem"). Don finished it off for the night with 2 poems, the hilarious "Underwear Boi Wonder," then one inspired by my Blog (so he said) "Hey This is My Street Corner You Poetry Skank!" dedicated to RM Engelhardt.

Half Moon Books Poetry Reading, February 6

On North Front Street in Kingston, NY, with our host Rebecca Schumejda.

Cheryl A. Rice read in celebration of her 30 years in the area, with memories of her youth on Long Island (2 sections from a long poem, "Cantata for Clams, Pines, Expressways"), then into poems about her life in the Hudson Valley.  She read tender musings on relationships, on food ("Italian Food Day"), on a gone Kingston classic fern bar & her ex-husband, even "Italian Food Day" in the city of Newburgh (also "Exit 17"), even on Sylvia Plath in "No Songs No Packages."

In contrast to Cheryl's multi-page remises, Howie Good's were poems short, grim, single-pagers.  He is a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz & author of many poetry chapbooks.  He started with "A Note on Craft" reading poetry in bed.  He included some inter-related prose poems from a series called "Pigs/Iron," dream-like narratives.  His poems frequently included sardonic humor, such as "RSVP", a list a dark excuses one can use, or the haiku like "Four Seasons".  There was a tender memorial for one of his students, "Songs without Words."  Some of his titles were like poems themselves, such as "Heart with a Dirty Windshield."

I had read once in this very same bookshop in its other incarnation with Pauline Uchmanowicz, who is also a professor at SUNY New Paltz.  But first her partner, Jim read a poem he had written in Chinese.  Her poems were tight, crafted works I can imagine her writing with a Thesaurus in one hand, so much so that she had to frequently define unusual words in the poems.  "Quarry Hill Road" described a rural setting with archaic words that also seemed out of place in a poem on a  beach in Massachusetts.  "Mechanical Drawing" drew us back to high school with word play on the terms of the trade, as did the poem "Quaternary."

Like a well made salad or casserole, the variety of tonight's poets & poems bounced different, contrasting & complementing flavors & textures off each other to leave me with a feeling of time well-spent.  Look for more fine readings at this venue.