Tag: Open Mic

Wednesday, January 6, 2016, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Free

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

Bob Murken is 81 years old but started to write only 5 years ago. That’s strange because, for 35 years as an English teacher, he’d shared his love of literature with students of all ages and levels of ability, yet never really dabbled in creative writing himself until 2009. That was the year he got pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis that made him learn to treasure life and play it by ear. He began saluting it in simple rhythmic verse that tended to be concise, vivid, and generally good-humored. A heart attack two years ago complicated things even further, but he’s a lucky man, and the days have continued to accumulate for him. So, he hasn’t died yet and hopes he won’t any time soon. In the meantime, his modest publishing history includes appearances in Los Angeles’ City Works, The Red Wheelbarrow, The Cynic Online Magazine, and Oklahoma’s Art Affairs.

LEGOS AND SWISS ARMY KNIVES

What is it you want from me?
To be a simple Lego block
that fits so well and clicks in place
with dozens others of my kind?

Or maybe a Swiss Army knife
to do all those surprising things
like bore and screw and file and rasp
and cut you if you are not careful?

Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Free

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, Ana Božicevic emigrated to New York City in 1997 and studied at Hunter College. She is the author of several chapbooks, including Morning News (2006) and Document (2007). Her first book-length collection, Stars of the Night Commute (2009) was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and her second book Rise in the Fall (2013) won the Lambda Literary Award. Božicevic has worked for the PEN American Center and the Center for the Humanities of the Graduate Center, CUNY.

From A Kind of Headless Guilt Emerges

And now it’s time. To use vague holy-man speech, like: I am

another face in your hand, the face of your eye — wing-surrogates, the word bones—

it’s time for afternoon, them white-blank architectures.
No, veil. Nothing’s glistening. Christmas, Christmas. It’s time

for you to forgive me: I was forced to eat valises
that wouldn’t close by themselves—

that was just a dream, good morning:

regurgitate the stars and the soot

Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

DENISE LA NEVE writes both poetry and fiction. Three of her poems were published in the anthology Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades (2010, Poet’s Press, http://www.poetspress.org), for which she was also an editor. Other work has appeared in the annual Red Wheelbarrow, Sensations Magazine, and the Istanbul Literary Review. Her short story ‘Whoru’ won the prize for best fiction in a fiction contest sponsored by Sensations Magazine (2007). Denise co-hosts the acclaimed NORTH JERSEY LITERARY SERIES in Teaneck, NJ. She is currently working on a poetry chapbook based on her childhood summers in Citers, France, and is one of 5 editors of a major new poetry anthology to be published by the Poet’s Press in early 2016.

PAUL NASH is a naturalist, writer and editor whose published works include poetry and narrative fiction, as well as scientific and historical articles. He conducts research at the American Museum of Natural History on ancient organisms preserved in amber and sedimentary rock. With his wife, Denise, he hosts the monthly NORTH JERSEY LITERARY SERIES (founded in 1997). He was a contributing poet and editor for the anthology Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades (2010, Poet’s Press, http://www.poetspress.org), and has also been published in and an editor for various literary journals. He is currently on the Board of Directors of The Poets’ Press. Paul has collected ancient amber on scientific expeditions to India, Northern Alaska, and the Dolomites of northern Italy, as well as during excursions to the feathered dinosaur beds of Liaoning China, the Isle of Wight, and the amber fields of Lebanon. He is past President of the New York Paleontological Society.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

MARK FOGARTY believes, like Shelley, that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. He is a poet, musician, and journalist from Rutherford, NJ. He is the managing editor of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow and emcees the monthly poetry/music reading at GainVille Café, also in Rutherford. He has read his poetry extensively in New York and New Jersey and has had poetry in more than 20 publications. He is the author of five books of poetry from White Chickens Press: Myshkin’s Blues, Peninsula, Phantom Engineer, Sun Nets, and Continuum: The Jaco Poems.

from In Memory of Thomas Ortiz

This high pueblo is isinglass,
the water in the cistern freezes near the sky.
In the clouded ice you can see down a thousand years,
the padres, conquistadores, spirits of the dead.
The dead stay close, the wind tugs them,
they funnel down through rings
and collect in the kiva
on Catholic holy days.
St. Stephen winces but lets them through.
The bishop won’t like it but he’s not here.
Down a thousand years he remembers
how rain washed out the trail
and the stranded ones on top leapt to their death.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams
and open readings from the floor

Contact: John Barrale – john.barrale@gmail.com

Geraldine Green is a freelance creative writing tutor, mentor and published poet. She lives in Ulverston on the Furness Peninsula Cumbria, UK, where she was born. Her latest collection Salt Road was published in 2013 by Indigo Dreams. Geraldine is writer-in-residence at Swarthmoor Hall and a guest tutor at the Hall and also at Brantwood Coniston. In September 2011 she gained a PhD in creative writing titled: An Exploration of Identity and Environment through Poetry from Lancaster University. A frequent visitor to North America, she has a two-week poetry tour planned for August 2015 where she will read at a variety of venues in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Geraldine blogs at geraldinegreensaltroad.blogspot.co.uk.

from Salt Road into the Bay

I walk out into wind,
salt & flat-caked mud
baked white in the sun,
tread among samphire,
spiked as yet unplumped
shoots of bright green
small pockets of prayer
parcels of ozone and ask:
are you really samphire,
that bright jewel of
Shakespeare?
Picked, plucked,
remembered from Lear?