I would like to apologize for any name mis-spellings! and to remind everyone we welcome not just poets, but fiction, prose, memoirists aka-- anybody who has something to say and to read!
Don't forget to bring at least one copy for Rachael. We plan to have a "grab bag" after each meeting where head chef Candi Ramer will draw a poem out of the hat. The winning poem entitles the writer to a 5 % discount on any item on the Sushi Blues Menu!!!!
My Sister
by Abby Meeks
She is mine
like a middle name, a bra size
and I tote her name around on my tongue
Emily
show-and-telling her to the world
the face that launched a thousand memories
that are mine, collected
like trolls and American Girl dolls.
Our Secret:
a fishtail down the hill on Dakin Rd. in January
a vodka-Gatorade at the swim meet
two fingers down the back of my throat
a missed flight to Prague
golden rhinestone twins that pierced our umbilical scars
mine now rusting in a pipe somewhere and hers
shut out and outgrown
by a filler of flesh.
We ask Santa for dollhouses
in matching flannel nightgowns and
in the room with the upright piano
where she takes lessons from the woman from the land of the Philippines
we awake to discover hers, yellow, mine, blue
the first Christmas she stops beleiving in
Daddy.
I'm sixteen, armed and dangerous with learner's permit
she's seventeen and wasted off Alabama Slamma
at Paul D's later
I watch her sleep and she awakes to puke
in the metal bowl I keep bedside
we play American Girl dolls
I hold back Kirsten hair with Samantha hands
combing through blonde strands
I will crave sober fingers years later
when it seems impossible to untangle
my Samantha brown hair.
Her boyfriends are
Jay-Jay the Jet Plane! whose locker is next to mine in
Blue Hall
Adam the Head Lifeguard who laughs at our
fingertoes
Dwight Schrute the future Congressman who hates when I call him Dwight
her boyfriends are Boyfriends while
my boyfirends are "boyfriends"
She still sleeps with the light on and dreams
I am eaten by a shark
she watches helpless, standing only two feet away but
hears the carnage through the earpiece of her
cell phone
they say it is impossible for one to die in one's own dreams
It is impossible for me to live
in hers.
This morning I drove to school and somewhere
between Lebanon and Lally Lane
I sat with her on the dock of the bay
wasting time.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
First Poetry Reading Smash Success!
Last night the poets gathered at Sushi Blues. By 8:30 the room was silent except for the readings of the poets who assembled to share their diverse work. The audience was enthusiastic and supportive, the writing discussions in between lively and provocative. We had members from the Colgate campus, as well as local life-long poets who live in these areas. We are eagerly looking forward to an even better turn-out on March 10. Please bring work to pass and post!
Rachael Ikins took photographs as the readings progressed through the night. A wonderful piece was read in duet form by a fabric and clay artist we are familiar with around Hamilton, Ms. Susanne Farrington, who asked Arthur Ramer to read with her.
Rachael Ikins read several of her current works preceded by Amanda Meeks of Colgate. Frannie Iacuzzi read two pieces in process from her Advanced Poetry writing class with Bruce Smith Andrea read a segment of a novel/memoir of women in the fifties which was so clear it felt not like decades ago but "just yesterday." If I left anybody out, I apologize. If anyone who did read would like their work posted on this blog, please email or give Rachael a copy and she will make it happen. Again, many thanks! to all who came and shared cookies, poetry, and laughter. See you next time! Life hones. Poetry abides! Read on....
Retired Couple Gossip
by Susanne Farrington by Rachael Ikins
When we retire Old purses's zippered pockets
we will get matching dogs. gap-tooth smiles, shoulder on.
Then, wearing leisure our twin leisure suits, Wrinkly gum-wrapper, stale mint,
we will walk our leashed dogs one 1986 copper penny's copper, blue;
around the block and to the park. an almost-full frequent buyer card
"A FREE BOOK" the store, long gone.
We will carry our camera phones They slouch
In case the grand-kids call. disconsolately from cellar pegs
And bring our I-pods and Blackberries on wall-board, pooched out lips, stretched
to enhance our gentle recreation. straps, abs gone to flab. Our cat hunts here
whispers among them, under them, through
We'll stop to rest on park benches. their inside-out secrets. I move them from
Then the dogs will sit one rusty nail to another. Their lips flap mutely.
Tell stories of the woman who toted
and not bark at squirrels. their weights, each like an infant (through Fire)
to this life. My right bicep bunches reflexively.
Skin there will always bear the scar.
Short Story
by Arthur Ramer
I'm reading a book of short stories
written thirty thousand years ago
in nineteen eighty-nine.
If there are veterans
they're dressed in jeans, wear beards
and long hair. Swig whiskey
from tall glasses and refer obliquely to
the 'Nam.
I close the book on my chest
and marvel at how many more
vets there are now.
All in the name of God
and country and family,
baseball and booze.
Time has slipped away,
wetting swamps and sands.
I'm amazed at how we've wasted away
the fortune of our future
into futility.
Rachael Ikins took photographs as the readings progressed through the night. A wonderful piece was read in duet form by a fabric and clay artist we are familiar with around Hamilton, Ms. Susanne Farrington, who asked Arthur Ramer to read with her.
Rachael Ikins read several of her current works preceded by Amanda Meeks of Colgate. Frannie Iacuzzi read two pieces in process from her Advanced Poetry writing class with Bruce Smith Andrea read a segment of a novel/memoir of women in the fifties which was so clear it felt not like decades ago but "just yesterday." If I left anybody out, I apologize. If anyone who did read would like their work posted on this blog, please email or give Rachael a copy and she will make it happen. Again, many thanks! to all who came and shared cookies, poetry, and laughter. See you next time! Life hones. Poetry abides! Read on....
Retired Couple Gossip
by Susanne Farrington by Rachael Ikins
When we retire Old purses's zippered pockets
we will get matching dogs. gap-tooth smiles, shoulder on.
Then, wearing leisure our twin leisure suits, Wrinkly gum-wrapper, stale mint,
we will walk our leashed dogs one 1986 copper penny's copper, blue;
around the block and to the park. an almost-full frequent buyer card
"A FREE BOOK" the store, long gone.
We will carry our camera phones They slouch
In case the grand-kids call. disconsolately from cellar pegs
And bring our I-pods and Blackberries on wall-board, pooched out lips, stretched
to enhance our gentle recreation. straps, abs gone to flab. Our cat hunts here
whispers among them, under them, through
We'll stop to rest on park benches. their inside-out secrets. I move them from
Then the dogs will sit one rusty nail to another. Their lips flap mutely.
Tell stories of the woman who toted
and not bark at squirrels. their weights, each like an infant (through Fire)
to this life. My right bicep bunches reflexively.
Skin there will always bear the scar.
Short Story
by Arthur Ramer
I'm reading a book of short stories
written thirty thousand years ago
in nineteen eighty-nine.
If there are veterans
they're dressed in jeans, wear beards
and long hair. Swig whiskey
from tall glasses and refer obliquely to
the 'Nam.
I close the book on my chest
and marvel at how many more
vets there are now.
All in the name of God
and country and family,
baseball and booze.
Time has slipped away,
wetting swamps and sands.
I'm amazed at how we've wasted away
the fortune of our future
into futility.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Open Mic Neighbors! Mark Your Calendar!
For all those poets and musicians heading for Sushi Blues on up-coming Monday nights, here are a few related events to put on your calendar as well!
In Earlville, New York, home of the famed Earlville Opera House, host musician Steve Blais will be holding open mic nights on the following dates Mar. 19, April 16, and May 21.
Sign-ups begin at 6:30 p.m. for 15 minute performance slots through until 9:30 p.m.
P.A. provided.
Piano available.
All styles of music welcome; poetry or other spoken word performance welcome.
$1 coffee; $1 baked goods. See you there!
MAD-art artists' co-operative in Hamilton, New York, just around the corner from Sushi Blues and next door to the Hamilton Movie Theater will be holding an performance event on March 15, Saturday, at 7:30 p.m. in honor of Women's History month and to celebrate womens' creativity . Last year 2007 MAD-art held the first annual HER-story event that was well attended. Co-op president Catherine Jones hopes that HER-story '08 will be, too. Poetry and other types of artistic interpretation and talent welcome. It will take place, as last year's, in the MAD-art space. Though the focus is women, men are welcome to attend, to!
In Earlville, New York, home of the famed Earlville Opera House, host musician Steve Blais will be holding open mic nights on the following dates Mar. 19, April 16, and May 21.
Sign-ups begin at 6:30 p.m. for 15 minute performance slots through until 9:30 p.m.
P.A. provided.
Piano available.
All styles of music welcome; poetry or other spoken word performance welcome.
$1 coffee; $1 baked goods. See you there!
MAD-art artists' co-operative in Hamilton, New York, just around the corner from Sushi Blues and next door to the Hamilton Movie Theater will be holding an performance event on March 15, Saturday, at 7:30 p.m. in honor of Women's History month and to celebrate womens' creativity . Last year 2007 MAD-art held the first annual HER-story event that was well attended. Co-op president Catherine Jones hopes that HER-story '08 will be, too. Poetry and other types of artistic interpretation and talent welcome. It will take place, as last year's, in the MAD-art space. Though the focus is women, men are welcome to attend, to!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Welcome To Monday Night Poetry @ Sushi Blues
NEW!!!!!!!Monday Night Poetry Events in Hamilton, New York
Please join us for poetry readings and slams every second and fourth Monday of the month at Sushi Blues Restaurant, Hamilton NY @ 7:30 p.m-9:00 p.m. The first meeting is Monday February 25.
Bring some of your own work to read for the open mic portion of the evening.
This bi-weekly event is co-hosted by Rachael Z. Ikins, central New York poet and photographer and Frannie Iacuzzi , Colgate undergraduate student and poet.
Many thanks to Sushi Blues and Candi and Arthur Ramer for providing us with a place to stand up and declare ourselves.
We hope to schedule special, invitational readings by local well-known poets and teachers of poetry writing as well from time to time, and to encourage writers of all ages to give us an ear!
Directions: from Syracuse, Manlius, Fayetteville--take rte. 92 E to the head of Cazenovia Lake. Turn left. Go through downtown Cazenovia and Morrisville on rte. 20 east. Turn right or south onto rt. 12-12B into downtown Hamilton. At the first stop-light, Colgate University Bookstore will be on the right. At the end of the next block on the right is Sushi Blues, next door to Hamilton Whole Foods. Free on the street parking.
From Norwich, Sherbourne, Smyrna etc. take rt. 12 north through Earlville. Sushi Blues is approx. 7 miles from Earlville on the left. One building up from the post office.
Please join us for poetry readings and slams every second and fourth Monday of the month at Sushi Blues Restaurant, Hamilton NY @ 7:30 p.m-9:00 p.m. The first meeting is Monday February 25.
Bring some of your own work to read for the open mic portion of the evening.
This bi-weekly event is co-hosted by Rachael Z. Ikins, central New York poet and photographer and Frannie Iacuzzi , Colgate undergraduate student and poet.
Many thanks to Sushi Blues and Candi and Arthur Ramer for providing us with a place to stand up and declare ourselves.
We hope to schedule special, invitational readings by local well-known poets and teachers of poetry writing as well from time to time, and to encourage writers of all ages to give us an ear!
Directions: from Syracuse, Manlius, Fayetteville--take rte. 92 E to the head of Cazenovia Lake. Turn left. Go through downtown Cazenovia and Morrisville on rte. 20 east. Turn right or south onto rt. 12-12B into downtown Hamilton. At the first stop-light, Colgate University Bookstore will be on the right. At the end of the next block on the right is Sushi Blues, next door to Hamilton Whole Foods. Free on the street parking.
From Norwich, Sherbourne, Smyrna etc. take rt. 12 north through Earlville. Sushi Blues is approx. 7 miles from Earlville on the left. One building up from the post office.
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