Poets Speak Loud!, November 25

Always a “must-go-to” on my list, this night even more so with the featured poet Mary Kathryn Jablonski. & this was the last of the 2019 season since the last Monday of December falls in the midst of the holiday season on the eve of New Year’s Eve. Tonight as always the host was Mary Panza.

First on the sign-up sheet was Sylvia Barnard with a poem from a workshop at church on the poetry of T.S. Eliot, an eco-poem titled “The Chorus of the Earth,” then the 3rd version of a poem she has read at open mics previously “Grandma Moses.” Tess Lecuyer read 2 haiku, one for a rainy Fall day, another with a title “Mum’s Just Want to Have Fun!” & then “November Sonnet.” Julie Lomoe’s poem about depression was titled “11 Ways of Looking at November” with a look to Wallace Stevens.

Marilyn Zembo Day made a rare, & welcome, appearance & read a moving, intricate piece on the coming of Winter & her son’s addiction, “Yesterday the Day After This Morning.” Kristen Day read a favorite poem of many of us in the audience, a hilarious conversation with her Grandmother “Four Fucking Dollars,” then, at the request of tonight’s featured poet, sang for us the spiritual “I Wish I Knew How to Be Free.” Don Levy followed with a tale about “A Call from the Doctor.” I read 2 old poems, “What Happens in Autumn” & “What the Deer Sees” (I tend to read poems that I’ve just written, but have a truckload of older ones that should see the light of day again once in a while).

Mary Kathryn Jablonski has a new book of poems Sugar Maker Moon out from Dos Madres Press but tonight read poems not in the book. She began with a tale tale told to her on a massage table “First Kiss,” “World of Two” about a yellow tabby cat, then a memoir of her mother, & the provocatively titled “Marriage & Death.” Back to another childhood memory this of the barn & fields where she grew up “Minor Mischief,” then a poem about collecting postcards “Postcard Divorced of Meaning,” & “Octopus Bride” based on her reading Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus. Her final poem, “Fortune,” similar to Bob Sharkey’s take on Chinese Fortune cookies, was based on them also, but in couplets with the actual fortune & her response/reaction, funny, & sometimes unsettling.

It was good to see Ian Macks back at open mics here, but upsetting to hear his poem “The Black Problem” about racism he experienced on the job at Whole Foods & at a vegan restaurant he called “Skinhead & Mustache.” D. Alexander Holiday read a poem titled “Nigger Lips” by Martin Espada on the same issue, then read from local poet Victorio Reyes’ book The Rebirth of Krazy Horse the poem “For Dna, Emily and Thora.” Joe Krausman read his much-published poem “The Passionate Accountant to His Love,” based of course on Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” then the more ethnic “My Son the Meshuggenah.” Carrie C. read a couple of her older poems, “Isolation” on PTSD, & “Hard & Forceful Punishment” like being tortured by the weight of stones.  Tim Verhaegen read a memoir of a young friend who died years ago, “Squinting through the Darkness.”  

Glenn Cassidy read 2 memoir pieces, the first about Thanksgiving Day 40 years ago “Revenge of the Shrimp Cocktail,” then a tale of his high school math teacher (Mary Panza announced that Glenn would be the featured poet here at Poets Speak Loud! in February 2020). Tom Riley read a rhyming poem “My Grey November Cloud,” then one titled simply “Dragonflies.”

Since there will be no Poets Speak Loud! in December, Joan Geitz had at the distinction of being “the last reader here of the decade,” & read a poem from 31 years ago, like a prayer for the future, “I Want to be Free Again.” & thus this decade of poetry at McGeary’s ends.

Poets Speak Loud! will be back at McGeary's Irish Pub on Sheridan Square in Albany, NY on the last Monday of January, 2020 (January 27) with the Annual Tom Nattell Memorial Open Mic with your guest host, Me! at 7:30PM — preceded by the ceremonial beret toss in Tom’s honor at the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park. Watch for information on AlbanyPoets.com & on social media.

Book Launch & Reading - Mark W. O’Brien, November 24

This event was held at the Voorheesville Public Library & Mark began his reading by saying that it was in this very room that he “came out” as a poet many years ago.  Today he was promoting his new book from FootHills Publishing My Childhood Appropriated. The book is a collection of childhood memoirs written as Haibun, a prose tale followed by a haiku. Mark also has a Blog, 36 Views of Ononta’kahrhon, in which he posts photos & asks other poets to write Haibun based on the images.

He read a selection of pieces from the book beginning with the title piece, then “Shunpiker,” one about his mother “She Lived Vicariously,” the hilarious tale “Peedy My Best Friend,” & “All of My Lies are True.”

Musician & poet Tom Corrado joined Mark to “noodle” a bit on his stand-up bass, then accompanied Mark’s reading of poems from his white binder, one about escaping to the woods, then more childhood memoirs “Riddle Me This,” “Chain Saw Prankster,” “Back of the Fence,” “Boys Will be Boys,” & “Kofax versus Gibson.”  A stroll down Mark's memory  lane.

You can get Mark’s book from www.foothillspublishing.com or from the poet himself the next time you see him at a reading or open mic.

St. Rocco’s Reading for the Dis-possessed, November 23

A movable feast, this iteration of St. Rocco’s was crammed in to Urban Aftermath, a used book store with a graveyard for office supplies & a child’s treasure box of abandoned toys, on Hamilton St. in Albany, but then if you have a poetry reading it should be in a small place so that it looks crowded, while the same 15 or 20 people in the Times Union Center would look like no one showed up.

The reading was introduced by a rambling Douglas (“don’t call me Doug”) Rothschild, who was then interrupted by a phone call on a laundromat issue (of course, this being a series named after the patron saint of laundromats).  Alexis Bhagat introduced the individual readers, a poet & 2 novelists.

First up was local poet Ellen Rook. She began with a dream poem beginning “My dreams are like student poetry…” then to a poem addressing Persephone, & one responding to an X.J. Kennedy poem (& the famous Duchamp painting) “Nudes Descending a Staircase No. 2.” A more grim poem was titled “Necrology for Your Post-Apocalyptic Life” that used text from a police report about her brother-in-law’s murder. Others were the ironic “Immigrant Prayer,” a neighborhood poem “Center Square Oblivion,” followed by an imaginative take on the language of an eye diagnosis, & a poem about her brother “Things That Are Strange about Kevin.” She ended, in a way back where she began, with the poem “Unreliable” which she described as “kind of a disclaimer” filled with things & images in great detail, the opposite of “student poetry” & what made her reading so enjoyable.

The St. Rocco series is known for bringing in out-of-town writers. Such were the 2 remaining readers who each read from a novel-in-progress.

Bethany Ides read from her laptop an excerpt of what she described as “may or may not be a novel” (my notes don’t include a title). It was a dreamlike fantasy, apparently set in a hospital with a woman character Donna & a male character Donne, & filled with dialogue & clever, or attempts at clever, banter, sort of like an intellectual TV sit-com script.

Marianne Shaneen’s novel-in-progress Homing was more appealing, a work of what is now called “speculative fiction” (i.e., academic science-fiction). She said the novel includes writing from the point of view of non-human-persons, including not only animals, but also plants, even a stone. However the Prologue section she read from did not include any of that, instead was narrated by a woman on a plane, wondering about “aircraft/animal conflict” that brings down aircraft, & a recollection of seeing a whale in the Gowanus Canal in New York City, a pondering “I” describing what she sees, reporting on history.

The best way to find out where/when the next St. Rocco’s reading will be is to find them on Facebook where you can sign up to get their emails; also, when they send me an email about an event, I will bounce it to the Poetry Motel Foundation email list.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, November 21

Another stellar night of poetry at the Social Justice Center, including some new voices/faces, & our featured poet Lucyna Prostko. But first I invoked our night’s Muse the gone poet Lucie Brock-Broido (1956 - 2018) by reading her poem “Father, In Drawer."  Then on to the open mic.

I had seen Rakeem Carter perform just Tuesday night, & also 2 weeks ago, at The Low Beat & tonight he continued his re-mix of Edgar Allen Poe & the musical The Streets of Soul Train, mixing in celebrity names & movie titles. As soon as he read he was out the door. D. Alexander Holiday updated us on his DNA status, then read from Wole Soyinka’s anthology Poems from Black Africa, a poem for Yao.

Lance LeGrys was here for the first time & read a poem about a boy rescued from a fire-tower near where he lived “The Top of the Tour,” the clue-less adventures of youth. Bryan Whittle was also here for the first time & did a musical, metrical piece about his credentials to be a poet as a middle-class white guy doing what he should, who wants to play the blues.

Our featured poet Lucyna Prostko began with poems from her book Infinite Beginnings (Bright Hill Press, 2009) the opening poem “Homecoming,” then “This Bread” about her grandfather in a concentration camp, then one for her husband “Ode to Provider,” & “The Metaphor” with a quote from Virginia Woolf’s diary. Then on to some newer poems “Layers of the Dream” about her immigrant history, calling forth her ancestors, & a poem about a story her mother told her “My Mother the Thief,” & “In the Cellar,” & one about watching a family of “Grouse” crossing her yard thinking of the story of her life. The poem “My Father the Sculptor” mixed images of him in his last years with missing him, then ending with another bird poem “Flight” (an osprey) or perhaps an ars poetica. Her poems are built on images pulled from the things of life, what she sees, remembers, vivid & thoughtful.

After the break I read one of my 2 poems inspired by Lucie Brock-Broido, “Reading by Candlelight.” This was followed by Don Levy who read about getting older & “A Call from the Doctor.” Sarah Giragosian is a former-feature here & tonight read a new poem titled “To the Source,” an eco-poem. Bob Sharkey was the night’s final reader & read a poem titled “Our Beloved Neighbors” about the change in the demographics in East Latham & a herd of elephants moving in, another eco-poem of sorts.

The Third Thursday Poetry Night is a monthly open mic with a featured poet at the Social Justice Center in Albany, NY, 7:30PM — your donation helps to pay the featured reader, support poetry events in the area, & the work of the SJC. Bring a poem & sign up.

Brass Tacks, November 19

Earlier in the day I got a message from Nick B. wondering if I was coming to this event at The Low Beat this night, that he was to be the guest host for Thom Francis but couldn’t make it himself, & asked me to be the substitute substitute host. Of course I said “yes” (otherwise there might not have been this Blog). I arrived earlier than I would have if I was just going to be another open mic reader but there were already most of what would be my sign-up list there. We hung out for a while but when I realized that the mythical tour bus had gotten lost I started the open mic.

Since the person in the #1 slot was here for the first time I decided I would be merciful & opened up by reading a couple of older poems “Veranda DelRay” & “Well-Laid Stones.”

Brandon Garcia was here for the first time & read an untitled love poem in hip-hop rhyme. Speaking of which Rakeem L. Carter reprised his reading from the last Brass Tacks 2 weeks ago with from “the Streets of Soul Train” a mash-up of Poe, Jimi Hendrix & other song titles.

While all this was going on 2 young women came in & when I got a chance asked if they wanted to read. Although reluctant at first, Sue said she would (her friend Linda declined). Sue did fine, read 2 poems, the first on depression titled “15 Minutes,” the other titled “Caretaker.”

& that, as they say, was that.

Getting down to Brass Tacks is an open mic run by AlbanyPoets.com at The Low Beat, 335 Central Ave., Albany, NY, on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays at 7:30PM — not only do you not know who might show up to read to read, but you don’t know who might show up to be the host. Be there & find out.

Community of Writers, November 17

It was a busy weekend for readings, one yesterday at the Albany Public Library, one today at the Schenectady County Public Library.  Community of Writers series began as recurring programs sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild in various locations, usually libraries, in the Capital District. This one in Schenectady is currently the only annual event, & is coordinated by poet Alan Catlin who was also the host. There were 7 readers in a variety of genres.

First up were Jim & Carol McCord reading from their book Two Lenses — Four Europes (Shanti Arts LLC, 2019), an exquisite book of poems & photographs of England, France, Greece & Spain. As Jim & Carol alternated reading poems written by Jim, they also projected the related photos which in the book are on facing pages to the poems, then added a couple poems not in the book.  While many of the poems commented on or directly related to the photos, many were on themes barely suggested by the photo, but that the photo, or the poem, suggested.  The book can easily be read/looked at as armchair tours of each of the 4 countries, or dipped into at random.

Sylvie Briber is a 4th generation Schenectadian who currently lives in an historical home in the Stockade section of the city. She has researched the history of the house & its residents & written about it in her book The Inscription in the Window, a fat, spiral-bound, self-published book of tales. She read 3 pieces from the book, “Thru the Window,” “Train Whistles” about a drawing from 1831 of the first train connecting Albany & Schenectady that ran right behind her house, & “The Portrait in the Parlor” about the woman who wrote with a diamond on a window in the house.

Caroline Bardwell has been active in the local poetry scene & recently opened The Schenectady Trading Company on Union Street. She also published this year On and Off the Trail: A Collection of Poetry and Photography (Troy Book Makers), a lovely collection of black & white photos & Nature poetry. She read a mix of poems today, some from the book, including “At Dusk: Wolves” & “First Snow Day.” She also read a variety of other poems, including one of her seasonal exercises in alliteration, & another exercise in sound, “Electric City Pride” (rhyming on “Schenectady”).

Faith Green rarely reads out so it was good to hear a chunk of her work here today. She is the president of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. She said there was no theme to her reading, just random poems, the first a genealogy of sorts “I’m From,” then others with titles like “Shadows & Dreams,” “Blind Love,” “The Art of Disappearing,” “Named” (for Vincent Van Gogh), & “Ageless.” Faith had worked as a teacher in a prison & read from that experience the poem “Incarcerated Teens.” She ended with “Astral Proportions” & one that explained why “I Hate Mushrooms.”

Shena McAuliffe was, for me, the big surprise of the event. She read from her debut novel titled The Good Echo (Black Lawrence Press, 2018) which won the Big Moose Prize & the Balcones Fiction Prize. She read from the opening section of the novel which begins in the voice of a 12-year old boy who has died from an infection from a root canal done by his father, a dentist. The novel eventually goes on in the voice of the boy’s mother & notes kept by the father. She said it was inspired by a true story. The section, Prologue, that she read from, is a story told in rich, realistic detail, musical, & poetic. I don’t usually buy novels, hoping to find the book at the library, knowing chances are I will only read it once. But, as I said to her after the reading, I heard more poetry in her short reading of prose than I sometimes hear in some poetry open mics, & so I bought the book.

Mary Kathryn Jablonski had read yesterday at the HVWG reading at the Albany Public Library. Today’s reading she said was of “snow poems,” most from her latest book, Sugar Maker Moon (Dos Madres Press, 2019), but not all. She began with a collaboration with Philip X. Levine, an exquisite corpse titled “When I Think.” The poems from her book were “First Snow,” “Star Bride Triolet,” “Fever 2,” & “Snow Globe.” She ended with a couple poems not in the book, “These Past Few Days of Freezing Rain” one Mary Kathryn’s video poems, a collaboration with film-maker Laura Frare, & ended with a piece about the Russian space dog “Laika.” It’s always good to hear Mary Kathryn read, even when it is 2 days in a row.

For more information about the Hudson Valley Writers Guild visit their website.

HVWG Poetry Contest Winners Reading, November 16

& annual members’ meeting held at the Albany Public Library, Washington Ave. branch. When I saw the list of winners & “Honorable Mentions” I was pleased to see the names of poets with whose work I was familiar, others who I knew by name but was not familiar with their work, even one whose name was new to me — & found out I had heard her work many years ago.

The reading, & meeting, was moderated by HVWG president Faith Green. Each reader read their honored poem & 3 or 4 others, giving us a brief look at their work.

The first up was Deyva Arthur who began with her poem “The Sandpiper’s Eggs” which won an honorable mention. There is a surprising photo on her Facebook page of sandpiper eggs deposited in a crack in a tennis court. The other poems were titled “Grandma Rocks Baby,” the ironic “Thank God for Capitalism,” & “Night Drive.” Although I knew of Deyva both as a writer & an activist (& a Facebook friend) this was the first time I can recall hearing her poems, & I hope to hear more from her.

I know the next reader, Mary Kathryn Jablonski, much better, having published her chapbook To the Husband I Have Not Yet Met back in 2008 (A.P.D.); she is also a visual artist & collaborates with film-maker Laura Frare on video poems. Her latest book is Sugar Maker Moon from Dos Madres Press. She read 4 ekphrastic poems, beginning with “On Having Borrowed a Diebenkorn from the University Museum” which won an honorable mention. She also read “The Woodland Path,” “Postcard Divorced of Meaning,” & one inspired by reading Sy Montgomery’s book The Soul of an Octopus; interestingly enough, 2 other readers reference Mary Kathryn’s poem in their remarks on their poems.

The third Honorable Mention read was by Margaret McGowan, whom I thought I’d never heard of before, but that’s because when she was reading at the open mics here in the 1990s she was Margaret Smalec. Her honored poem was titled “Hush,” about walking to escape the tensions & pressures around her. The poem “Passage” was about where she was “from” while “Ancestors” took a different, made-up approach. “More” was inspired by a poem she had read, & one about a flood “Hoping that Would Sleep.”  Another new/old poet who I hope to see at an open mic soon.

Karen Schoemer’s 3rd prize poem was about her daughter in the hospital “Happy Clown.” Her other poems also referenced her daughter, “Stopping by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on a Saturday Afternoon,” the pantoum “The Night Hospital,” & the villanelle beginning “What if the wind…” Karen has read at a number of the poetry venues in the area, including at the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center.

At this point there was a short break to peruse the book-swap table & buy raffle tickets, then the drawing for the 3 prizes. I won a HVWG tote bag with an eclectic bunch of books — a novel, poetry, some non-fiction, including a wonderful translation of the Tao Te Ching by Prof. Victor Mair, who my daughter Madeleine studied under at UPenn.

Back to the reading, with G.E. Reed (whom I know as Guy Reed) who won 2nd place with his poem “Apples” about his daughter, which he read last. He read a couple poems from his collaborative chapbook with Cheryl A. Rice Until the Words Came (Post Traumatic Press), from which they read in this Summer’s Poets in the Park, today the poems “Born Late” & “Why I Don’t Write Like Frank O’Hara.” He also read “Seeing the Starry Night” & a 3 stanza pantoum about a train “Ghosts.” He pointed out that this is the first contest he entered as “G.E. Reed” & hopes that winning 2nd place was a good omen.

The final reader was the 1st place winner Paul Lamar. Although I knew his name from various arts & literary contexts, including a series of workshops & talks on Albany history, I had never met him or heard his poetry. He said his reading was about “people who were important to me,” including his mother whom he wrote about in the winning poem “Eulogy.” Others were a friend from 4th grade, “My Luck,” a time of discovery about who he really was, in a similar vein “An Apology to my Clarinet Teacher,” & a couple of poems referencing time spent with his granddaughter “Opus 90, Early Morning” (with a nod to Brahms), & “The Arborist."  Perhaps we can coax him out to an open mic sometime.

In addition to the marvelous reading there was a brief meeting, with a membership report, treasurer’s report, & an appeal for folks to join the Board to keep the Guild’s work going. For more information about the Guild visit the website www.hvwg.org.