Caffè Lena Poetry Night, May 5

Back in the pre-pandemic days the Caffè Lena Poetry Night on the first Wednesday of the month included an open mic, in addition to a couple of featured poets. It was well-attended & was grand gathering of community poets. With the coming of COVID-19 & the attendant restrictions there has been no open mic, &, up to a couple months ago, no audience, the featured poets reading to an empty house. Currently, limited audiences are permitted. I have frequently tuned in to the pandemic-era readings which are live-broadcast on Youtube. This night I made my first trip to Saratoga Springs in over a year, had dinner at the social-distance Harvey’s, then to actually sit in Caffè Lena.

As I waited to be checked in, who was right in front of me, but the formerly-local poet Jan Tramontano & her husband Ron, who were in town from their current home in Florida. They made for wonderfully genial companions as we shared a table together.

The reason (actually 3) that I made the trip was for tonight’s featured poets, Will Nixon, Mary Cuffe Perez, & Mary Kathryn Jablonski, fine regional poets who help make this area in upstate New York the vibrant poetry scene that it is.

Will Nixon read first, & began with poems from My Mother as a Ruffed Grouse (FootHills Publishing, 2008), tales of childhood, often humorous, with his brother, & baseball; also, a sex tale from a time he lived in New York City, & one of Rip Van Winkle in the Catskills (“Insomnia”). He ended with a poem from Love in the City of Grudges (FootHills Publishing, 2010), set in Hoboken, NJ, titled “Sunday Afternoon the River Smelled Like Engines.”

Mary Cuffe Perez read a combination of published poems, poems from a manuscript-in-progress, & recent poems. The poems from her chapbook Poems in November (Finishing Line Press, 2019) set the tone of straight-forward little vignettes, which in the book are untitled & flow together as one narrative. She also read from her unpublished manuscript “Why Meringue Fails,” about the “little failures” like meringue, her hair, a chicken & about  her aunt, & her mother’s simple cooking. Her new poems included horses, November (again), cooking & deer hunting. She ended with the childhood memory, “A Night Before Hay.”

I published Mary Kathryn Jablonski’s book To the Husband I Have Not Yet Met (A.P.D., 2008) so you can guess I like her work, & many of those poems were included in her 2019 book from Dos Madres Press Sugar Maker Moon. Tonight she read mostly new poems, but began with her side of a collaboration with Will Nixon, & “Lacus Veris” from Sugar Maker Moon. She has been working with great success in collaboration with film-maker Laura Frare on video poems & read the text of one of those, with her bird whistling. Other poems were about her family, her brothers & a goat from the farm where she grew up. Her final piece was the intensely emotional “Five Easy Pieces” about the dying of her brother but touched with gentle humor.

The best thing about these pandemic-era readings at Caffè Lena is that you don’t have to take my word for it on my Blog about what happened, you can watch & listen to the actual performances on the Caffè Lena YouTube channel. Otherwise you can tune in live, or, now, actually attend live performance on the first Monday of the month in Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, & maybe even get a hug from your favorite poet.

Antarctic Artists and Writers Collective Event, April 29

I was invited to this Zoom Webinar by Professor Leigh Ann Christain (better known to us local poets as Annie Christain). I had recently seen the movie Concrete Cowboy (available on Netflix) & one of the panelists was Greg Neri, author of the YA novel Ghetto Cowboy upon which the movie was based. As often happens with such events, I had little idea what I would be seeing & hearing but was easily drawn into the fascinating stories & images the 3 writers presented. The other panelists were Susan Fox Rogers & William L. Fox.

Trish Suchy from AAWC gave a brief introduction to the organization & its programs that brings artists from all genres — writing, photography, music, performance art, etc. — to the Antarctic for inspiration, exploration, & collaboration. The participants are from the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program (AAWP). SUNY Cobleskill is a partner in this effort & is where Professor Christain, who served as the chair of the panel, teaches.

Greg Neri read poems that were inspired by his visit to Antartica & the photos he took there. He said he did little writing while there & based his poems largely on the images he had taken & on his memories. He was charming -- intellectual, warm & poetic.

Susan Fox Rogers is the editor of the anthology Antarctica: Life on the Ice (2007); she a writer, teacher & birder. She described the “extraordinary silence” of the continent, & commented on how “ugly” it is. She said that as she went to each settlement she would ask "where you sleep, what do you eat, & where do you pee?" Sound about right to me.

Science writer & art critic William L. Fox read from an essay titled “Building on Ice,” full of facts & figures about Antartica, commenting upon the “immense contradictions” of the place, the kind of things I like hearing in "travel literature," not that I want to plan a vacation there.

You can find full biographies of the panelists on the AAWC website which also contains information about their programs & about their members. I’ll leave the travel to Antartica to others, it gets cold enough here in Albany, where I also know I have warm places to pee.

2nd Annual Earth Day Reading, April 22

This event was organized by the Friends & Foundation of the Albany Public Library (FFAPL), & moderated by Alexis Bhagat, Executive Director of FFAPL. It was held on Zoom & live-streamed on the Capital Region Earth Day Youtube Channel.

Lex began the program with a moving statement acknowledging the land on which we live & the nations of this land. The program was divided into 5 parts with readings by local officials, scholars, activists & poets.

The first section was titled A Reading for the Land and the City. The readers included the Honorable Kathy Sheehan, Mayor of Albany, Melanie Metzger from the Albany Public Library, Lauren Moore NYS Librarian, Atmospheric Scientist Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, & Preem Cabey from AVillage. Selections were read from the works of others & their own writings.

The second section was titled A Reading for the River and the Waters. The readers included local, regional & national poets, including myself, Ramona Cearly from Riverkeeper.org, Susan Pedo, & Ken Hada (director the the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival at ECU, Ada, OK). 

The next section was A Reading for the People & the Animals & included poets Lucyna Prostko, Matthew Burns, Tiffany Higgins & Gretchen Primack.

A Reading for the Wind and the Air was the fourth section, with readings by Jill Szwed, poet Allie Middleton, local activist Luke Forbes, & novelist & activist Pippa Bartolotti.

The final section was titled A Reading for the Future & included appropriately enough students from the Albany High Leo Club, Christian Simmons, Egypt Snipe & Rashid Ford. The final performer was rapper Jayohcee from the Akwesasne Nation & a song he wrote while in Standing Rock.

An excellent source for eco-poems is Ghost Fishing, An Eco-Justice Anthology, edited by Melissa Tuckey, from the University of Georgia Press.

As the sign on my lawn says, “Everyday is Earth Day.”

16th Annual Favorite Poem Project, April 18

For nigh on these many years the folks up in Rensselaerville at Conkling Hall & at the Rensselaerville Library have been holding this event during April & this year you didn’t have to drive up into the mountains to participate, or attend, you could Zoom in from anywhere. & many did. There were some invited local poets to read original work, & others from the community (& elsewhere) invited to read their favorite poems.

The program was introduced by John Arrighi from the Friends of Conkling Hall & by Heidi Carle from the Rensselaerville Library. Linda Miller served as the host/moderator & shared one of her own poems in the lineup.

A good poem to start this off with was Mark Nepo’s “Way Under the Way,” in his guru mode, read by Philomena Moriarty. Mark W. O’Brien read a poem by Seamus Heaney & one of his own. Sarah Nelson sang one of her poems, accompanying herself on the ukulele. She was followed by another poem done up as a song, “For Emily” (Dickinson, that is) done by Charlie Rossiter accompanied on guitar by Jack Rossiter-Munley.

I read an urban poem about meeting poets on the street titled simply “Poem.” Phyllis Hillinger introduced some humor with her piece “Masked Benefits.” Mimi Moriarty’s “Instructions for Spring Cleaning” was also humorous, albeit grim. Linda Miller read one of her poems & one by Ross Gay.

Robert A. Miller read one of his own poems titled “Midnight.” Tom Bonville’s (pictured with Tom Corrado) poem about fishing with his granddaughter was built on memories of fishing with his father & grandfather. Tom Corrado (pictured with Tom Bonville) based his poem “The Mathematician’s Daughter” on the 2005 movie Proof. In addition to reading her own poem “I Remember the Property in Snow,” a pantoum, Dianne Sefcik also read a poem by Polish poet Adam Zagajewski (1945 - 2021).

Zoom-ing in from the Bronx, Annie Lanzillotto read a poem set in Italy about a little black cat & gender identity. While I’ve seen Didi Corrado at many poetry events & social gatherings this was the first time I’ve heard her read one of her own poems, a moving piece on family titled “Winter.” Marea Gordett read her poem “Vanished” about extinct birds. Tony Fallon (pictured) was one of the few rhymers today with his poem “Easter Sunday 2020.”

Ellen Rook (pictured) who does live in the area was attending from Maine, read her poem “thrush morning.” Dennis Winslow read the famous poem by British poet William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903) titled “Invictus” about facing adversity. Mike Maggio attended from Virginia to read a poem about his brother “Elegy in D Minor.” Claire North was in Vermont & read 2 poems, one titled “Lorica for Uncertainty’s Invasions,” playing on the term lorica, meaning a piece of body armor, but also a prayer, from the Irish monastic tradition, for protection.

Jane Mendelson read from what was listed on the program as Happily Jane and the Pooka by Angie McDonough. Philippa Dunne (pictured) recited 2 poems from memory by one of my favorite Chinese poets, Han Shan (Cold Mountain). Susan Oringel read one of her pandemic poems “In the Beginning.” And Mary Ann Ronconi brought the program to a close with her poem aptly titled “This is Spring.”

And so, with the help of Zoom & some dedicated volunteers the 16th Annual Favorite Poem Project was able to take place in spite (or because of) the pandemic ban on massed gatherings. Perhaps next year next year I’ll have to take the long drive up the mountain, but then if I do perhaps there will be a few hugs, instead of just waving on the computer screen. 

Writers Mic, April 14

The 2nd Wednesday open mic, formerly out of Schenectady & hosted by Jackie Craven, now with a new host making his debut tonight, the poet Daniel Sennis, with a cluster of familiar faces here for the open mic. 

I decided I could go first & paid tribute to the recently gone poet & editor of the poetry journal lips, Laura Boss, by reading her poem “My Lover Says I Don’t Pay Enough Attention to Him” from her 1995 collection, Reports from the Front (Cross-Cultural Communications), then read my own poem “The Transit of Venus” that Laura had published in her most recent issue of lips (which she had started in 1981).

David Graham dedicated his first piece to our host, as a teacher, reading the poem “At the Desk” by the German writer, Theodor Storm (1817 - 1888), as translated by Robert Bly, then David’s own poem “The Weight of an Envelope” based on a kids’s comment that he had known his Mom a very long time.

Scott Morehouse read a humorous piece “Theatrical Tidbit 1921” about a fictional show that closed at intermission, perhaps titled “Too Many Nannies” — one can always count on Scott to make us smile, even laugh.

Susan Jewell read what she couldn’t read the last time, “Becoming Galvanized,” a memoir of her father, an ekphrastic piece based on the image of the sun in the bucket.

Mary Ann began with a piece by Denise Duhamel “Wednesday April 29, 1992” then one of her own “The Judge & Her Jury” in which her mother reads her Diary.

Our new host, Daniel Sennis, brought the evening to a close with the latest revision of his poem “Gender Orthodoxy is Booty” a piece in rhyme set at a garage sale, followed by the recently written, descriptive “This Spring Day.”

It’s fortunate that this series, taking place now on Zoom, on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, has found a new host to keep it going. Find out more about it, along with the Zoom link, at the Writers Mic Facebook page.

Open Mic out of Bennington, April 13

Charlie Rossiter is our head-phoned host, Zoom-ing in from Bennington Vermont.

First on the virtual sign-up list was Bill Thwing out in Western PA, who read from Poems of the Masters anthology edited by Red Pine, & his own haiku. In the 2nd round he took out his guitar to perform a recently written song, leftovers from the Trump era, titled “Riding on a Hurricane.”

I reprised a poem by the recently gone Laura Boss titled “My Lover is Typing” from her book Reports from the Front (Cross-Cultural Communications, 1995), that I had read at the open mic on Sunday,  then later read “The Transit of Venus” which had recently appeared in lips 51/52, a poetry journal that Laura Boss had edited since 1981.

Mark O’Brien read, in both rounds, from his Blog spontaneous sonnets, in round 1 “69” on Flaubert, like an ad, & in round 2 #71 “an Easter poem,” he said, but actually about Holy Thursday.  

Barbara Sarvis was the first Vermonter of the night & in the 1st round she read a children’s book she had written & illustrated, Pesto & Caesar, about the joys of eating healthy food, then in the 2nd round she read a piece titled “Objects of Intolerance” about keeping an Aunt Jemima doll. 

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read as a tribute to Laura Boss, one of his poems Laura had published, & one I’ve heard many times with the 3 Guys from Albany, “The Ex,” then in a nod to the special Lyn Lifshin (1942 - 2019) issue of lips, a memoir of a literary magazine he helped run, a piece titled “The Madonna Who Ignored Submission Guidelines.”

Jim Madigan was another far-flung attendee, joining us from Oak Park, IL, & began with “Fire Season,” then in round 2 a memoir of seeing “The Clash in Cleveland” but inspired by  a poem by David St. John. 

Naomi Bindman read memoir pieces in both rounds, in the first round segments about her daughter, her mother, holding bodies, filled with the little details of experience, then in the second round a memoir about a dog from her childhood “Old Sammy” as well as “Stardust” about a memorial service for a daughter.

Joel Best’s first was titled “Madcap” in his signature style of linking random images, thoughts, but in the 2nd round his poem “A Distant Thursday” was more focused, about being at the ocean with the whales & gulls.

Sally Rhoades' 2 poems were both responses to the work of Oklahoma writers, in the first round her “Girl on the Bridge” was after Dorothy Alexander’s tender memoir  poem about taking in a young girl, while the 2nd poem, “We’re All Sitting with You Rilla,” was after about novelist Rilla Askew’s chilling story of a rape when she was young, that I also heard at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada, OK.

Tom Nicotera took a trip down memory lane recalling the the sanitized version of life on TV, that was all about to change, “Safe & Sound with Ozzie & Harriet,” then on his 2nd time around a piece about a hawk at the window of an office window.

Kenn Ash managed to squeeze in 2 pieces in each round, first with the rhyming “No Deposit No Return,” & “Distance,” then later a 2-parter, again in rhyme, & again time about eating away, with the 2nd part to a recorded rhythm, while he played his trumpet.

Elaine Frankonis read “a double” Haibun titled “A Fables Coat-tail” a story of a fancy Egyptian coat, & on her 2nd round a piece about the end of Winter & the need for seeds, “Nether Season.” 

This open mic, on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, does much better with attendance on Zoom than it did formerly in person at the brewery, because I doubt that folks like Jim Madigan would drive in from Illinois, & even relatively-nearby New Yorkers & folks in far-flung parts of Vermont would rather not drive when they can sit home in their jammies. Contact Charlie at charliemrossiter@gmail.com for a Zoom link if you want to join us.

 

2nd Sunday @ 2 — Poetry + Prose, April 11

Almost warm enough to bring the poetry outside, but then it is April, the month of showers. Our host Nancy Klepsch was in Troy but the rest of us were elsewhere, a good turnout of 10 listeners/readers.

I began the open mic with reading a poem by the recently gone Laura Boss titled “My Lover is Typing” tender & funny, from her book Reports from the Front (Cross-Cultural Communications, 1995).

Kendall Hoeft was here from far, far away & read 2 poems of her own, “The Star,” an ekphrastic piece after Edgar Degas’ painting of a dancer, “L’Etoile,” then one titled “Liberation Song,” both poems filled with the rich details of a poet’s eye.

Joel Best also read 2 poems, “Malconto” which he described as “just the thoughts clanging around in my head” which could also accurately describe his 2nd poem “The King Particles.”

Bob Sharkey read a poem written while digging a hole in his yard “Dig It Some No Place” (which is a quote from Bernadette Mayer) descriptive of his property, the birds there, what he finds in the dirt, etc., a rambling, poetic description.

I was so pleased to see Joe Krausman “here” today, I guess he finally figured out Zoom, he read 2 poems also, “Therapeutic Touch” about an old couple’s intimate moment, & “Gratitude” a funny rhyme about his being given life by his parents; I was glad to hear these "old chestnuts" again.

Julie Lomoe said she was reading prose “for a change” a piece titled “Spring Awakening” a long ramble about the details of her life, & crying over a sick cat.

Cheryl Rice read what she called “2 new ones,” “Salmon Run” imagining herself as the fish, & “Imagine Your House is On Fire” inspired by an anthology of poems using that prompt, about what she would you take with her.

Nancy Klepsch asked, “does this poem make sense” about her first, meditative piece, which I took as a love poem, then one she read last month, “Home is the Place that Flies” mushrooms, & her place, & good to hear this piece again.

Sydney Allen read poems written by her father, “Mid-Western Memories” about family members & details of the family, in Ohio in a neighborhood wiped out by I-71, then “Uncut Seasons” about hearing children play & recalling memories of Ohio.

Kathleen Gillespie read from what she wrote at a fiction writers workshop, a persona piece about heading out on the open road “’Tis the Season.”

& that was that for this month. You can find the Zoom link & other information about this monthly open mic on the Facebook group page 2nd Sunday @ 2 — please join us, from wherever you are.