Poets of Earth, Water, Tree and Sky, April 8

As Winter ends (we think, we hope) the new season for this series starts up at the Pine Hollow Arboretum & it was off to a great start with Tim Verhaegen as the featured poet, our host, as always, the Bird, Alan Casline.

Although I got there close to the start time, the #1 slot in the open mic was still open, so I grabbed it, & read 2 new poems I had not read out before “Decomposition” & the driving directions “How to Find Clit Court” (a real street in Colonie, NY). Paul Amidon read 2 of his characteristically descriptive poems, “Friends” (on death), & “More to Learn” about cutting wood. Howard Kogan (who is equally discursive) read 2 poems about the Universe, the spider eco-poem “World Enough” & one about Uranus in particular & astronomy in general. Mark O’Brien read a most appropriately titled poem “April Has Been Cancelled” then his poem appearing on the Rensselaerville Library Poetry Project Blog “What would you be like if they named you after a Dutchman?”

The creator of this space that is the Arboretum, a sort of zoo of trees, John Abbuhl, read a couple of recent philosophical musings from his pocket notebook, about what he calls “cooperative intelligent design.” Mike Conner began with a relationship poem written 10 years ago “Fourth Act,” a poem about internet dating “Not a Friend Yet,” & a poem about poetic forms & painting style “Word Painting.” Both of Joan Gran’s poems had birds in them, “For the Birds” (in an April snow storm) & “Spring.” Thérèse Broderick read “Green” (on the color) which said were “inflections” or half-translations of other poems in French & Spanish. Frank Robinson read a philosophical/political prose piece from his Blog, “Plus Ultra.”

The house was packed with friends & fans for Tim Verhaegen, tonight’s featured reader. His reading mixed poetry & prose, all spiced with Tim’s profane & cynical humor. But he began with a tender memoir of growing up on Long Island, “Old People.” I have heard him read previously his obituary-styled caustic biography of his brother, “Charles Verhaegen Chronic Everything Sufferer is Dead,” but it still makes me laugh out loud, as it did everyone else. The on to a grim memoir about the house he grew up in, followed by an essay on questioning things & about his own unique way of believing in God. He ended with the exuberant piece about a balletic battle between geese & swans “Swans.” Time flies when you are having fun, & we were.

There were more on the open mic sign-up sheet, but I had to leave to get to a jazz show & missed them. But there is a whole season of more monthly readings here at the Pine Hollow Arboretum, 16 Maple Ave., Slingerlands, NY, Friday nights, pot luck at 6:00PM, reading at 6:30PM — bring poems for the open mic.

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic, April 6

Up to Saratoga Springs for the open mic at Caffè Lena. Our host, Carol Graser, started us off with a poem by Jamal Nay(?), “Hum for the Bolts” (of cloth, that is). Then on to the open mic before the scheduled featured poets, Lisa Wiley & Peter Marcus.

Joe Hesch was first on the list with a poem about a writer facing the blank page, “You Are Here,” then one titled “The Shoes You Only Wear in the Rain.” Tim Sneider recited a poem by James Kavanaugh, then his own biker poem, “Q and A.” Debbie Bogosian was the night’s volunteer at the door read her poem “Ain’t Hindsight Wonderful” then one that played on the various meanings (& implications) of “Plumbing.” Eric Krantz began with a poem set in East Brunswick, NJ about his dog “Early Morning Musings,” then the humorous rhyme “Why Not Take All of Me.” Kate McNairy’s short little ditties were “Armadillo” & “A Cup of Rum Tea.”

The first of the 2 featured poets was Lisa Wiley, who had driven here from Western New York with her husband. She read a good selection of poems from her book My Daughter Wears Her Evil Eye to School (The Writer’s Den, 2015), beginning with “Why My Mother Won’t Attend My Poetry Readings” (she wasn't here) then an April poem (& the image on the cover of her book) “To My Yellow Converse” & the title poem. Another poem inspired by her daughter was “Cello Lesson,” while “Strawberry Island, Late Summer” was about a place she went as a 10-year old. Lisa also has a book of villanelle’s from Finishing Line Press, Chamber Music & she read the title poem & “Love at Starbucks” from that. She included one of e.e. cummings love poems, “I carry your heart” (a poem I read at my wedding in 1979), then a poem for her husband, Art, “The Anchor,” & then later another for Art “Back Porch, the Summer I Turn Thirty-Nine.” There were also a few California-inspired poems; then her final poem was about the heroin epidemic, that as a teacher, has touched her directly, “Clean.”

Peter Marcus was the other featured reader, from not-so-far away in Western Massachusetts. He began his reading with 2 Winter poems (& tonight, although it was April it felt more like February), a poem about the homeless “Winter City Lullabye” & the short lyric “Snow” from his book Dark Square (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2012). Other poems that he read from the book included “To the Pier,” “The Insomniac’s Pet Shop,” & “The Embrace” (from his experience as a psychologist in an in-patient hospital). Paul commented that he was varying his playlist to respond to some of Lisa’s poems, read his poem “A Common Music” on parents & music, & “The Pig River Carries 2 Lines by Du Fu,” adding to his social justice themed poems, such as “The Only Fires” (Tibet), & later included a poem on the brutalization of black men “The Lies of Too Many” & a poem set in Cuba “Landscape Almost Carved by the Sun.” Another sleep poem was “The Origami of Waking,” as was his final poem, a multi-part meditation “The Going.” This was a brilliant pairing of 2 very engaged poets who communicated well with the audience.

After a break to buy & trade poetry books, Carol Graser returned with her persona poem “The Haiku.” Judith Prest said her poem “Mooned” was written at Pyramid Lake & inspired by a poem by Dorianne Laux, then a poem titled “Awake.” James Schlett read a series of Haiku on Winter & his daughter. I followed with my homage to Don Levy’s open mic series Live from the Living Room “Should I Stay or Should I Go” then “Poeming” from my chapbook Poeming the Prompt.

Rodney Parrott, whom I missed as the featured poet here last month, read a long poem, with his dancing hands, from his novel The Wanderer. Charles Straney had 2 poems on “starting,” from 2010 “Spring Sledding” (guys standing around trying to start an engine), & one written this month “Spring Starting.” Thérèse Broderick read “She Slips Away,” a tender poem about visiting her daughter in Morocco. Tai introduced herself as a high school senior, read her poem “Aging” imaging herself growing old, then the self-assertive “Just Me.” She was the last on the sign-up sheet, but Paul Marcus, who had just heard of the death of Merle Haggard, wanted to end with a poem with Haggard in it & read “At the Pair of Dice Bar.”

Carol announced that in the months of June, July & August this open mic will move to Northshire Bookstore on Broadway in Saratoga Springs while renovations take place at Caffè Lena, but otherwise this reading & open mic takes place on the 1st Wednesday of each month, 7:30PM, for a modest donation.

Peter Lamborn Wilson & Charles Stein, April 3

I have been a fan of Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) ever since I discovered his book T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism (Autonomedia, 1991) by Hakim Bey, & kept my eventually well-worn copy on my desk at work. Chuck Stein was one of the readers Tom Nattell had brought to the QE2 many years ago, where I remember him reading poems in a language he had invented (so he said). Both have wide reputations among the literati &, since they live in the Hudson Valley, have many friends here. It was a nice day to take the scenic route down 9J to Hudson & the Hudson Opera House.

I grabbed a seat in the second row with a good angle for photos, but poet Robert Kelly, who is a big man, sat right in front of me. Also in the audience was one-time Albany resident, poet, student at SUNY, Christopher Funkhouser.

Peter Lamborn Wilson read first, from a series of poems he is calling “Hydrographicon,” about bodies of water in Ulster County, from the Hudson River down to puddles. The pieces he read included poems on the Jukes family, who lived in Ulster County & were studied by eugenics researchers in the late 19th century. Then on to poems about Plutarch Swamp, a couple of swimming holes, the Wallkill (dedicated to Robert Kelly), & ended with, of course, a poem on the Hudson River. Included was one poem titled “Temporary Autonomous Puddle,” with a reference to the legendary Irish character, Mad Sweeney. His language is exotic, particularly his adjectives, his lines mostly complete sentences sounding sometimes like he was delivering a lecture. As could be expected from such an audience, nobody clapped until the end — regrettably, I resisted the temptation to perform a bit of “poetic terrorism” myself & clap after each poem.

Chuck Stein’s reading was much more difficult. His own introduction to his work, read from his AirBook, was no help; it was dense, stuffy, & quite pretentious. He read a series (too many, in my opinion) of pieces from a volume titled The Mouse Eats the Cats Food But the Cat’s Bowl is Broken from his 13-Volume as-yet unpublished poetic epic, Views From Tornado Island. There was some sort of narrative, broken up by conversations & dialogue among characters named Wrench Boy, Jaguar, Hammer Head, Wrench Girl, Crystal, & others. The pages appeared to be written in short, poetic lines, but it read like the densest of tedious prose, like a humorless Lewis Carroll writing about “obliquity.” Only after did he explain that the whole project uses some sort of shifting algorithm to establish the first letter of each line, that he then improvises on, & explained that the title of the pieces he read from today was a Korean koan.  All that would have been helpful up front, & a little goes a long way.

The Hudson Opera House apparently has some sort of sporadic reading series & this was a part of that. I did get my copy of T.A.Z. signed with Hakim Bey’s hieroglyphic signature.

Poetry Reading & Open Mic, April 2

“April is the busiest month breeding poetry out of the dead lands…” or something to that effect. The first reading of National Poetry Month was a trip to the Roeliff Jansen Community Library in Hillsdale, NY.  Don Levy joined me for the trip, almost an hour south of Albany.  The featured poet, & host for the open mic, was Karen Schoemer. There were 19 signed up for the open mic, & about 25 total in the audience.

Karen Schoemer read about 6 poems, ranging from one that sprang out of Bernadette Mayer’s workshop (“Rhyming Dictionary”), to the descriptive “130 Miles,” “Sycamore Bar” & “November Sun.” She included a reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Mushrooms,” then her own “Mushroom” which is a childhood tale about her brother & one that you will be able to read on April 22 on the Rensselaerville Library Poetry Project Blog.

I was first up for the open mic with 2 poems from the anthology 2, “Garrison Keillor” & the related “Trailer Park.” Howard Kogan read his marvelous history of immigrants in America “A Brief History of Fun.” Colin Laclair said it was his first time & read 4 poems he had written this year, serious pieces filled with gardens & vegetables. Don Levy changed the tone with a couple of new pieces about trans-gender issues, “They Said” & the Whitmanesque “I’ll Go With You.” Ted Phelps read a traditional sonnet about April quoting Chaucer, & a poem inspired by the deadly stampede in Mecca “The Wonder of Weeping.” Elizabeth Haight read an autobiographical piece that took us from her childhood, up through adult relationships.

Cecele Krause’s poem “State of Mind” sounded like descriptions of scenes along the road during a cross-country trip. Deborah Phelps said she was new to writing poetry then read 2 descriptive pieces, “Awash in Sound” & the ekphrastic “May in Yellowstone” from a poetry workshop. Jayne Benjulian has read her poetry out before, but this was her first reading in New York State, & read the rich imagistic poem “Vidalia” about the town in Georgia where the eponymous onion comes from.

Todd Johnson used his “classroom voice” to good effect to read 2 poems about relationships (& both with images of birds) “Seeking Advice” & “When It Ended.” Amy White’s poem “Archipelago” was about women’s desires, & she followed it up with a sonnet by Pablo Neruda (who was the afternoon's favorite famous poet to be read). Another famous poet was Mary Oliver & Maureen Rodgers read Oliver’s “The Journey.” Phyllis Schlesinger read a tour-de-force narrative sestina “Writer on the Porch in Spring.” Noah Reibel was impressed by how popular poetry seems to be & also read a poem by Neruda, “A Certain Weariness.” Bob Harlow read a long, meditative/narrative piece referencing the death of Frank O’Hara “Port Jefferson, Frank O’Hara & Me.”

Chris Portius read a poem addressed to another, like a letter, “13th Step.” Bob Clark got up to say that he too had planned to read Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” & was reluctant to read it again, but at the audience’s urging did, & told an interesting story of finding in a 2nd-hand bookstore a copy of a Dr. Seuss book that had been owned by Karen Schoemer. Bruce Bernstein read this year’s winning poem, “Urge” by Pinchos Kurinsky, from the Jewish Currents Dora & Alexander Raynes Poetry Competition (Howard Kogan was a finalist again this year), a poem that I had just read the day before. & it was fitting that the afternoon of poetry ended with yet another Pablo Neruda poem, “Tonight I Can Write,” read by Lita Moses.

It was quite an afternoon of people reading poetry aloud, their own, & that of more famous poets, & well worth the drive. Many more readings coming up in the following weeks, but as we like to say:

Poets Speak Loud!, March 28

Tonight, the towering figure of Jon Drucker made an historic return to the Albany poetry scene where he had made his mark 20 years ago as poet, performer, publisher (The Greenhell Gazette), & candidate for Mayor. First, some dinner, drinks, & little open mic, with our host Mary Panza.

I was first up to read a new poem-tribute to Don Levy’s series Live from the Living Room “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” then, because it mentions Jon, the historic poem “Where Were the Professors?”

Sylvia Barnard, wearing a souvenir teeshirt from Sicily in honor of Mary Panza, read her poem “Guernica” now with a revised ending, & a new (1st draft) poem “Anna” about the only female prophet mentioned in the Bible. Ian Macks, enjoying the antics from the side of the room, read what he said as a “semi-happy” poem “2 Years Later,” then the more grim “Thursday Third Degree Burns” about the sadness & futility of speed dating. Tess Lecuyer had been going through some old folders & found one with poems from a class on formal poetry she had taught, & read 2 (by someone else), a Star Trek pantoum, & “A Ballade for Tess.” Don Levy read his memoir piece “Prose Poem for Karl Gluck,” then a new poem based on a photo that has been making the rounds on Facebook of an old lady giving the Nazi salute at a Trump rally, “Nazi Soccer Grandmother.”

Jon Drucker commented as he started his reading that he hasn’t read in Albany in 20 years, then paid tribute to many of this town's gone poets. He has a new book of poems Oneironaught: Collected/Selected/Rejected Poems & read mostly from that, beginning with “Train Wreck,” an unflattering portrait of a drunk woman, then the more pleasant narrative, “Pablo,” about a conversation with Pablo Neruda (which Jon said was the only poem in the book that has been published previously). Then on to “Unmade” (the bed), “We Shared a Whiskey,” & “Rule” combining megalomania & laundry. Then a couple poems for his next collection, one about leaves, the other about relationships as math, as changes, “Nowhere Mathematics.” He ended by returning to the book for “Rollercoaster.” Good to hear Jon’s work again. Oneironaught is available as a Kindle & in print format.

Annie Sauter brought her own clip-on light to help her read what she described as 2 Colorado “trailer park poems” (I certainly know about “trailer park poems”!), “Zero Vector” & “Feeding the Cats.” Karen Fabiane, who is a future-feature here (& elsewhere) read a poem about the dead & the living “Voice Under a Cold Moon,” then a poem from the recent “Pocket Poets” style anthology 2 “This Hardship of Loving.” Shannon Shoemaker read 2 brief poems, the new “Unrequited” & the strutting & ranting “Poem for the Open Mic.” Adam Tedesco can be quite grim as he was again with his 2 poems tonight, with “The Third Man” a take on moralistic/behavioral children’s books, & the equally grim “Sanctions.”

Julie Lomoe, another future-feature sang a tribute to the band The Eagles & Glenn Frey, the pastiche “Painful Queasy Feeling.” Avery read the classic movie speech by Charlie Chaplin, “the Great Dictator Speech.”

Another throw-back to the early years of the Albany poetry scene, R.M. Englehardt, ended the night with 2 of his classic poems from the era, “Jesus Saves” (set in a bar, of course), & a vehicle for grand pronouncements, “Interview with The Poet Isolationist.” A fitting throw-back to those (I think?) thrilling days of yesteryear…

The rest of the time Poets Speak Loud! happens on the last Monday of the month in the backroom of McGeary’s on Clinton Square in Albany, NY, about 7:30/8:00PM, check AlbanyPoets.com for complete information.

Juan Felipe Herrera Reading, March 23

I am usually indifferent to, if not mildly annoyed by, the selection of the Poet Laureate of the United States. Back in 1991 I actually penned a column for Metroland, the former entertainment weekly here in Albany, NY challenging Joseph Brodsky’s program of “bringing poetry to the people” by inviting him to the ongoing monthly open mic at the QE2 in Albany where the people were already doing poetry. But the recent selection of the activist poet, Juan Felipe Herrera, to that position was one that I felt well-represented the “community poets” in the world that I spin in. I plan to attend the Split This Rock Poetry Festival later in April in Washington, D.C. & was pleased to see that he would be giving a reading on April 13, the night before the official start of the festival. Then I was beyond thrilled to see he would be reading at Skidmore College this night — I’m not only there, but was there early enough to get good seats in the 4th row, with one of my favorite poet/lady friends.

It was not just a reading, but the College conferred upon Herrera an Honorary Degree. This was preceded by the requisite stuffy introduction by the Director of the Latin American Studies Program, who in introducing Herrera & bringing him to the stage, referred to him as “the Poet Laureate of the United States” but did not use his name until presenting him to the President of the College for the Honorary Degree. Then Herrera, who was wearing the requisite black academic gown, was obviously surprised when the Dean of the Faculty actually placed the academic hood over his head. To add to the comedy, as Herrera was left to start his reading, he asked, deferentially I thought, if he could take it off the gown & hood, which he did.

His reading & interaction with the packed audience of the Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall was equally relaxed & playful. He told an anecdote about his father learning English in the fields as a migrant worker by paying a fellow worker a penny per word, then in a great gesture of compassion for the students in the audience read from his notebook a poem about Will Golden the Skidmore student who had died recently in a fall.

“Like a peddler just opening his sack,” Herrera pulled a stack of books from his bag & began with a poem from Laughing Out Loud, I Fly (1998), which he described as written in the style of Picasso’s poetry, leading the audience in repeating the Spanish in “The Enchildadas the Butcher Gave Me.” His reading was bi-lingual sharing where he would translate/explain the Spanish words & phrases that are his poems making a bridge between cultures & languages to share with his audience, as in the 70s era poem “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” that he translated as he went along. A good single source is Herrera’s Half the World in Light: New & Selected Poems (2008), his poems ranging from the post-Rodney King riots, to film noir (“8PM”), to one titled “I Found Myself in the Studio of a Tabla Master,” another, about Marc Chagall, “19 Poklonskaya Street.”

The poems from Senegal Taxi (2013) take on injustice in Africa in the personae of not only a young girl & a boy with one eye, but also in that of a village fly & a Kalashnikov. He included poems from the recent City Lights collection Notes on the Assemblage, “I Do Not know What A Painting Does,” “Jack Rabbit, Green Onions & Witches Stew,” & “The Man With the Choke Hold,” ending with an animated performance of the 3-voice piece “The Soap Factory.”

I turned to my companion, who has often accompanied me to readings by well-known poets in this very auditorium, & we both said that this was by far the best reading we had heard here in this room — lively, engaging, playful, warm, real poems for the real world.

Gracias, Juan Felipe Herrera.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, March 17

It was the tail-end of St. Paddy’s Day & although there was no such holiday-related theme I did invoke the 100th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising by reading the lyrics to “The Foggy Dew,” & we were blessed by the presence of 2 Irish poems, one of whom actually read in the open mic, Philomena Moriarty & Pearse Murray.

First up was Philomena who said she came to America when she was 5 years old, in 1958, then read a poem, “Shape Shifting,” about a story her mother & her priest exchanged, & the fairies of Ireland. Sally Rhoades read a new poem written on Key Biscayne beach “The Crescent Moon” about being herself. Carole Rossi was back yet again with a poem written today “Grinding” stream-of-consciousness. Joe Krausman talked about Irish superstitions then read his poem “4” on insomnia (as in 4:00AM).

Tonight’s featured poet was Annie Christain, a young poet whose work I wasn’t familiar with until she contacted me about doing a reading. She has a book coming out in May from C&R Press, Tall As You Are Tall Between Them. Her first poem, “The Sect Which Pulls the Sinews,” was about the conflicts in the life of a Gay/Chinese/Jewish man, the first of many persona pieces. All her poems had such interesting contexts that her introductions were often as compelling as her poems, as in the poem “Watching Ourselves from Afar…” based on a Dali painting, & another that sprang out of her experience teaching in Nanjing, China, a complex bit of surrealism “LAPD Blue Child & Low Daily Rates & No One Was Killed in the Square.” Another from her experience teaching, this in South Korea, was the playful “Thorns to Rescue their Bodies.” “Pretending to Go & Come from Heaven by Fire” was more word play from a workshop exercise, while “Inside a Hand Basket in the Burlesque Theater” was an earlier piece imagining a dancer with no legs. Another poem was about a character under mind control, more surrealistic leaping & twisting, as in the poem “A Maple Gets Red” based on photos from the honeymoon of John Lennon & Yoko Ono. A more personal poem was “I Took to Walking Down the Middle of Highways to Avoid Getting Shot,” with a string of epigraphs from the Bible. She ended with another early, sound-poem, using phrases & references from dictionary entries done up in a love poem, “Done When No Longer Pink Inside.” Check out Annie’s book at the C&R Press website.

After a break I returned to the open mic with my Irish-themed poem “Sheila-na-Gig.” Sylvia Barnard read a St. Patrick’s Day poem from her book “Trees,” about taking her daughter to the parade in Albany. Cathy Abbott read a brief playful poem about a visit to Ireland in 1969. Karen Fabiane ended the night with a poem from her book Seeing You Again, the relationship poem “Fuck the Wind.”

Join us with a poem at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on the third Thursday of each month, & always a featured reader, all for a $3.00 (or more) donation.