Third Thursday Poetry Night, April 18

Not only was this the third Thursday of the month, it was also Poem-in-your-pocket Day as part of National Poetry Month, & it was the birthday of the great Beat poet, Bob Kaufman. The featured poet was Alan Casline, whose poetry friends filled up the sign-up sheet & the seats in the SJC. Of course, the night’s Muse was Bob Kaufman & I recited his poem/prayer, “Believe, Believe.”

Sylvia Barnard read 1st, her favorite spot on the list; her poem “Signs of Spring” was about what she saw out her window. David Gonsalves read a similar descriptive piece titled “Landscape in 12 Colors.” Edie Abrams showed up to honor her friend Alan & read a poem proclaiming “I’m Zooming.” Joe Krausman dreamed of having hair again “Hair Today.”

Mark W. O’Brien read poem set in California in the days of the Gold Rush, “Bidwell Bar,” from a forthcoming poetry collection from FootHills Publishing. Joan Goodman was back in town & joined us to read a sestina with the end-words from the work of the American writer Brian Doyle (1956 - 2017). Ray Drumsta was new here, read a poem about what we do, “Getting On.”

The featured poet, Alan Casline, is a publisher of broadsides, books, Rootdrinker newsletter, a mapper of watersheds, a student of the I Ching, & host of poetry events at Pine Hollow Arboretum. His connections to poets of both the 20th & 21st Centuries run varied & deep. Alan began with a poem written on New Year’s Day 1974 in California, “an adolescent poem” (he said) on Death for poet Michael McClure, then on to a poetic lecture, based on the I Ching, titled “Pillars of Local Poetry.” On to a grand melange of poems, such as descriptive, meditative pieces (“The New Crescent Moon,”  “Tiny Blue Bird,” etc.), 3 poems on War, poems from a trip cross-country in 2019 with his son Tom (“Mountain Meadows,” “There is a Hill”), even “A Wild Ride on Normanskill Bridge.” & others. Just what his friends & family have come to expect from this pillar of the local poetry scene.

After a break for Alan to sell books & greet fans, we continued on with the open mic. I invoked my right as the host to read next, my tribute poem to Bob Kaufman referencing, bouncing off Kaufman’s “Believe, Believe.” July Lomoe was putting together a self-published collection of poems titled Poems from the Slush Pile & read an example, “Red Alert,” about Donald Trump’s election. She was followed by her husband Robb Smith with a series of Haiku for Poetry Month.

Coming up from East Nassau, was Annabel Lee who read from a poetry chapbook of 7 of her poems, inspired by the work of Bernadette Mayer & by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Not the Joker Man,” with the recurring pattern of “this…, not that…” Also from East Nassau, Phil Good read a poem dedicated to Alan Casline, “Coffee & Cookies.” 

Therese Broderick read an inverted Haiku (7 - 5 - 7) after seeing the Solar eclipse. She was followed by her husband, Frank Robinson who read an announcement for the “Dan Wilcox Imitation Open Mic” in Catfish Corners, in Green County, a very funny spoof (Thank you, Frank!).

Marea Gordett is not here often so it was a treat to hear her work again; she read a new poem, “A Story of Snails,” inspired by an interview with the former Supreme Court Justice, Steven Breyer, which sounds like a prose tale, pondering good & evil, & the meaning of art versus famine. Elaine Kenyon followed to read a poem by the late Stu Bartow from his book Reasons to Hate the Sky, the poem titled “Reasons to Hate Birds.” The final poet of the night was Tom Bonville, a frequent reader here, wrote his poem this week, “All the Truth,” about a woman at an open mic, reminding him of a the death of his own memory of a young girl in an automobile accident, the reader courageous to be reading the poem.

We gather every month on the third Thursday, open mic starts about 7:30, a featured poet goes on about 8:00, then we continue the open mic. Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany — one poem in the open mic, $5.00 donation supports poetry events & the work of the SJC. Join us.

 

2nd Sunday @2: Poetry + Prose, April 14

What would National Poetry Month be without 2nd Sunday @2? So here we were back among the mushrooms, the co-hosts me & Nancy Klepsch. 

Rachel Baum led off with 2 poems from her new chapbook How to Rob a Convenience Store (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024), “From the Rear View Look Back” & “Mirror,” 2 ways of looking it seems. I followed with a couple of older pieces, from November 2010 a found poem composed of the book titles from The New York Times best seller lists, “Never Let Me Go,” & “Star Maps” about how the Greeks viewed the constellations differently.

Joe Krausman began with one of my favorite poems of his, “A Passionate Accountant to His Love,” then on to “The Great Choir of Being” how everyone dies someday. In a related mode, Tim Verhaegen said he was reading poems about dead people, the first about an aunt he thinks about a lot “Florence Verhaegen: Lots of Times,” the 2nd poem about a young friend of 15 who suicided, “You Said I Was Your Best Friend.”

Tom Corrado is now up to (at least) number 754 in his series of “Screen Dumps,” this one linking the unknown to the beach to 45 rpm records to Henry Miller & Annie Hall. Joel Best’s 1st poem titled “Unsettled” was addressed to that ambiguous “you,” while his 2nd poem was titled “Two Different Endings,” so the doesn’t have to introduce it, he said.

Tom Bonville had only 1 poem, about the death of his “Good Dog.” Co-host Nancy Klepsch read about how she wants a real bagel in her poem “Damn Bagel,” then read a rant against male poets attacking Taylor Swift, “Dear Taylor.” It has literally been years since I’ve seen Ed Rinaldi reading his poems out, today he read a poem about the end of Winter “Squirrel at the Window” (& thinking of the koi in the pond & flowers).

Anne Hoenstein read what sounded to me like a break-up poem, “Prayer of Wicked & Fire,” then read “Song Mountain Intangible” a mix of description & pondering. 

The last reader was new here, Jeided, said she was a nurse, a poet, & an activist about to go to  the West Bank; her 1st poem, “Trigger Warning” was a political rant about Palestine & racism & oppression, her 2nd piece was titled “She Does It,” a portrait of a woman in pain, giving up control -- good to have Jeided here.

It was a nice mix of the regulars, poets from past days, & a new voice. This happens — usually — as the title says on the 2nd Sunday @2, at Collar City Mushrooms, 333 2nd Ave. Troy, NY — but be warned that in June the 2nd Sunday open mic will occur on June 2nd, so that we can all attend the Pride Parade in Albany on June 9. 

Saratoga Senior Center Poetry/Storytelling Open Mic, April 12

Our host, Rachel Baum, got the afternoon rolling into poetry by reading a poem titled “Hoodie” by January Gill O’Neil, then introduced the day’s featured poet.

Rhonda Rosenheck is a member of the Board of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, runs Poetry Circle a critique group on the 2nd Monday of each month at the Schenectady County Public Library, & is a frequent participant in area poetry open mics. As she says, “I write sometimes.” She also talked about her obsessive writing projects, including daily Haiku, & read some Haiku (as well as other short poems, such as the “Lost Scarves”); also, limericks from the Bible, & even an example of her “crime poems,” “Slightly Bitter,” in an obsessive form, “tumbling rhyme.” An energetic, entertaining reading.

To start off the open mic portion of the afternoon, Rachel Baum read the title poem from her recently published poetry chapbook How to Rob a Convenience Store (Cowboy Jamboree Press). Gail Nixon followed with a pandemic poem, “Chaos,” then the self-affirmation poem, “Who Am I?”

Victoria Twomey read 2 poems from her 2023 poetry collection Glimpse (Kelsay Books), “Stadium Gods” & “White Dress on a Clothesline,” visual poems as befitting a painter of visual art. 

David (the 1st of 3 on the sign-up sheet) Soval read just one poem, titled “Suicide.” David Graham read “Totality” an eclipse poem, then a poem about the loons at Indian Lake in the Adirondacks. I followed with my eclipse poem, “Spathe is the Plathe.” Joyce Ruben read a piece about staying inside titled with a pun, “The Hides of March,” then one titled “Different Gardens.”

David Gonsalves began with “Neighbors,” a parody (or one might say, cynical take) on a Robert Frost poem, then a description of “Daybreak.”  Jay Rogoff, who has many books under his poet's belt, read a new poem titled “Why I’m Here” which told the story of the Jewish migration & his family from Belarus, the story of his grandmother & his parents.

Suzanne Rancourt came in towards the end & read from her phone (like so many of the young poets do), a poem about woodcocks mating in the backyard (& somehow I feel there is an [un]intentional pun in there).

This is a rare daytime poetry open mic held on the 2nd Friday of each month at the Saratoga Springs Senior Center, starting at 1:00PM, free, but check-in with the nice lady at the desk.

Out of Bennington All-Genre Open Mic, April 9

A post-eclipse gathering of poets, from lots of places. Our host Charlie Rossiter likes to do the 2-round thing, as long as the poets have 2 poems (which, of course, they do).

I was “there” early & was first on the sign-up list. In the 1st round I reprised my poem from yesterday’s eclipse party at UAlbany reading poetry for a thousand or more students & other celebrants, “Spathe is the Plathe” about the 2017 so-called “great American eclipse.” In my 2nd round, an old poem for an even older celebration “What Passover Has Taught Me.”

Cheryl A. Rice read “I Forgot the Glasses,” found another one, about our disappointments in the sky & elsewhere. In her 2nd round she read a piece titled “Breakfast Solo” sprung from a poem she heard at a reading.

Tom Nicotera began with a longer poem about a trail head library at a nature center in Woodbury, CT,  stories in the forest & the “book” of Nature. In the 2nd round he read a  a poem he found in his taxes that he forgot he had written, about hunting bears.

Bill Thwing brought out his guitar for both rounds; in the 1st round “Foggy Days & Foggy Nights” about scary nightmares as a scout; in the 2nd round, “Mountain Meadow” with lyrics written by his wife.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read a poem about attending a concert at Bennington College, the lights going out & back on during the “Concert to Dispel Demons.” The 2nd poem a piece of American working-class nostalgia, “For the Frederick I70 Rest Stop Torn Down."

Sharon Smith read a poem with a tantalizing title, “Hearing the Shaman Boogie, or Is That a Waltz?,”with a complex mix of dead dogs & her late Mother, numbers & other signs from friendly spirits; in the 2nd round a piece from last Fall about listening to the rain, “Birds Speak.”

Julie Lomoe also had an “eclipse poem” of sorts, a memoir of Charles Mingus at the Newport Jazz Festival, the Mingus band playing his tune “Eclipse;” in her 2nd round she read a poem from 2014 “Blinded by the Spotlight,” about reading a poem on stage surrounded by photos of stars of the past.

Naomi Bindman’s 1st round poem was written in the Fall, “Interstices,” with leaves, song & love; & for the final poem of the night she read “Shabbat,” which was brought to her mind by my poem earlier “What Passover Has Taught Me.” 

This monthly gathering is on Zoom each 2nd Tuesday of the Month; if you would like to join it & you are not yet on Charlie’s email list, write him at charlierossiter@gmail.com & ask him to send you the Zoom link.

Eclipse Poetry, April 8

Paul Grondahl, Dan Wilcox, Natalya Sukhonos

What would a solar eclipse be like without poetry? Actually, I guess it would be like any other astronomical event — another reason to look up at the sky. But the visionary Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute, Paul Grondahl, thought that at least at a university setting, poets should be be there to provide, if not commentary, at least a literary perspective, so he invited me & poet Natalya Sukhonos to provide that perspective while hundreds of students stared into Space (with the necessary Eclipse glasses).

The day was a bit overcast & in Albany, NY we were not in the path of totality, & I had given my glasses away to a student, but the ambient light did darken somewhat, as if the Sun were turning the rheostat down briefly.

Natalya’s eclipse poem was titled “The Journey of Eclipse,” written specifically for this occasion, mixing together images of the characters from Waiting for Godot & of the Cheshire cat, invoking silence. She also read 2 other poems that pondered the stars, one inspired by Rilke, “Lost Souls,” the other an ekphrastic piece from a painting, “Night Sky #16 by Vija Celmins.” 

I too had 3 poems, the word play on the term “Physics” (both as the type of science & the old-fashioned term for “laxative”), a poem inspired by “The Transit of Venus;” my eclipse poem was based on watching TV news coverage of the 2017 Great American Eclipse, & is titled “Spathe is the Plathe,” which one can find on my Blog here.

Check out the work of the NYS Writers Institute here, & sign-up for their email list, if you haven’t already.

19th Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival - Grand Finale, April 6

Indeed, a Grand Finale — the last event (#25 for the Festival) of Saturday morning, all gathered in Estep Auditorium. Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of 20 books in poetry, nonfiction & children’s literature. His role as host & consultant on the documentary film Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later earned him an Emmy, as well as other awards. You can read a more detailed bio on the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival website.

The 1st part of his presentation was titled Killing the Negative: A Conversation on Art & Verse, based on a touring exhibition, a collaborative project of visual artist Joel Daniel Phillips & Quraysh that explores the intersections of representation, truth & power. The exhibition is titled Killing the Negative: Poetic Interventions; find the information here.

Quraysh included a few slides of Phillips drawing to show examples from the exhibit.  The exhibition also includes poems by select American poets, including recent US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green,  Randall Horton, Rose McLarney, Moheb Soliman, Candace G. Wiley & Ken Hada, who was invited up to read his poems in the exhibit, among them one about a photograph of a Blind Street Musician, “Even the Music.”

(see Oklahoma Humanities, Fall/Winter 2023, "The Kept and The Killed" by Erica X. Eisen)

Then on to Qurahsh’s The Skin of Dreams: New and Collected Poems 1995 - 2018, a generous selection of his work, including from the 2014 collaboration with Christopher H. Stewart The Walmart Republic (Mongrel Empire Press). He read from a series of short poems with “Bible Belt” in the title, & a piece inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. (“violence is the language of the unheard”) “Elephants in the Room,” then on to an essay about his 40th high school reunion in Enid, Oklahoma, probing issues of race. He ended with another poem in multiple short parts, on racism & hate, “Symbolism,” with the theme of “hate is lazy, love is work” — the perfect note to end with, & to conclude these very busy 3 days of readings by a vast, complex variety of writers from Oklahoma & beyond, in Ada.

19th Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival - Saturday Morning, April 6

The last sessions of any festival are always bitter-sweet moments, the end of a communal gathering of old friends, new friends, leaving to catch flights, or to get home after a long drive before dark. And interestingly enough it was Ken Hada’s birthday, still another reason to shake his hand, get a big bear hug, thank him for another memorable Scissiortail Festival.

The first morning session was also the last of the choices between competing readings. I opted for the Estep Auditorium, more from a mental flip of a coin than any more conscious process.

The first reader was Paul Juhasz who is yet another graduate of the Red Earth MFA program. His stories & poems were lively, often funny. “Where the Wild Things Were” was a memoir of his youths pushing back at their suburban lives. Then went on to new poems, including the ironically titled “In a Children’s Museum,” then a poem titled  “My Last Moment” about a conversation with an ex reciting lines from Prince together (which he dedicated to me, since I continue to wear a customary beret, albeit not raspberry color, in this sea of cowboy hats & baseball caps). His “Buying Condoms at 51” was, of course, laugh-out-loud funny, & he ended appropriately enough with “Leaving Scissortail.”

Roseanna Alice Boswell is originally from upstate New York & currently is a Ph.D. student in English-Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University. The 1st poem she read, “Queen Anne’s Lace,” was about returning to the Adirondacks to visit her mother. Her poems were from a forthcoming book, many with running titles (i.e., too long for me to transcribe), such as “I Dream My Brother Tells Me He Was Wrong About…” & “Two Months After My Sisters Funeral…” & other poems about death, “Bereavement Rate” about her sister’s funeral, & “Unseeing Ghosts” about returning from a funeral with her mother, but all written in a descriptive, meditative manner without undo sentimentality. It sounded like an interesting work-in-progress.

Corbett Buchly is a writer based in Texas. He began with “Writing Backward on a Cave Wall,” as if the dead were speaking to us, then on to a couple poems about his deceased father. He also read on a variety of topics from the the natural world, such as a recent supernova, on “Peripheral Sight,” & an apocalyptic eco-poem “When the World Ends.” A number of his poems were in parts, such as his apology for his ancestors “Generic Cultural Identity." There was good advice, “Do Not Rent to Poets,” & he ended on Hope, “This Window Through.” Some fine poetic fun.

I had read with Molly Sizer in a session in Estep Auditorium in 2022. She is a retired rural sociologist, & began by noting that Oklahoma has “small mountains & big poets” — indeed! I felt a connection to her poem “Coyote’s Way” having written a few coyote poems myself, then a series of philosophical, meditative poems, I particularly liked one, “Hard Luck,” based on the quote by Woody Guthrie, “working man’s hands are the hardest hand to play.” Of course there were “sociological poems” including “District 32” about the confluence a union election in Southwest Oklahoma & the attack on Gaza, another, “Life Begins with a Scream.” She also ended with a leaving Scissortail poem, “Beignets & Bread Pudding.”

Continuing on to the last of the Scissortail readers in Estep, first reader was Paul Bowers who is the founder of Turning Plow Press, which if you’ve been paying attention has been mentioned frequently as the press of many of the Scissortail readers. He read from a piece titled “Tortuga Jorge,” about a clash of cultures between 2 women in a retirement community, & hibernating turtles, much of the humor from repetition & the way the story circles back on itself.

Denise Tolan was the judge of the Undergraduate Creative Writing Contest, as mentioned in the previous Blog entry, & is another of the graduates of the Red Earth MFA program mentioned so often in these Blogs. She read 3 prose pieces on the subject of childhood abuse the first, in which she has a talk with her mother, Part 1 from “A Very Short History of Abuse in 5 Parts.” Then a section from a long essay, “Things that Go Boom,” comparing her father to waiting for Mt. Vesuvius to erupt, then from an essay “Betrayal by Blood,” the story of her mother escaping with her & her brother. Difficult, but necessary, to listen to.

Christopher Murphy was also one of those I read with here in 2022, another prose writer, who, when introduced, received an enthusiastic ovation from his students in the audience. His working-class story was set in Boston, a tale of violence by rivals from high school, with a fierce fight & a car chase. A vivid piece of good writing.

Maria Polson Veves read selections from 2 of her 4 poetry books. From The Breaking Place (Stonecrop Press), COVID poems, she read the title poem, others on going to the dentist, or getting a mammogram, others. Her 2017 collection Church People was an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, poems about the very human conflicts that occur in any congregation. My favorite title was very telling, “Lutherans Behaving Badly.”

There was one more reading, the Grand Finale, this morning that will be covered in the next Blog.