Welcome to PoemAlley, Stamford, Connecticut's eclectic venue for poets, poetry reading and discussion! Open to anyone living in Fairfield County and the surrounding area, we meet Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm at Curley's Diner on 62 Park Place (behind Target) . Come contribute, get something to eat, or simply listen!
This
coming Tuesday Edison Jennings will read at Virtual Curely's via Zoom selections from Intentional Fallacies, his first full-length collection (Broadstone, 2021)
following the release of three chapbooks. A Tennessee Williams
Scholar at Sewanee (University Of the South) and recipient of two
Virginia Quarterly Review Conference scholarships, Edison hails from
the Appalachian hills of southwestern Virginia where he works as a
Head Start school aide and bus driver/safety monitor. On the state
level, he serves as a Virginia Commission for the Arts fellow.
Though
he writes essays, Ed is drawn to poetry mainly because “I like the
density, the wit, and the figuration of (it)... and the way it
sounds—primarily the way it sounds.” Working in rhymed, blank and
free verse, Ed generally favors the latter.
As he
explains below in an August 15, 2021 interview with Rattle
editor Tim Green on the poetry journal's video channel (starting at
15:30) the “Rattlecast”, his poetry usually flows based on the first one or two lines he sets down; other times, he
deliberately tries to compose his work in advance. The title of his
latest collection being a play on the
modernist dictum that the reader's interpretation of a piece should
be made independent of what the poet intended, delves into the notion
and outcomes flowing from the deliberate promulgation of false ideas, or
priorities.
For
instance, the piece below stands in opposition to the unfledged,
escapist Silicon Valley promises of Mars colonization, orbital hotels
and Transhumanist paradises. “Country Song” demonstrates Edison's
honest fascination with the eternal tension, frequently in
oft-overlooked rural settings, between life's wearing compromises and
struggles and the mortality of life against the ineffable splendor of
the world as it is:
Country
Song
She
styles hair, does manicures too,
at
Sassy Girl’s Bonbon Salon
(The
Place To Go For A Killer Do),
and
he drives a long-haul truck,
popping
Addies to stay awake,
selling
weed for an extra buck
to
pay off their subprime loan
and
not have their house repo’d.
“We’re
screwed,” he says, “screwed to the bone.”
Then
she tells him he’s her hot mess,
brushing
back a wisp of his hair.
Their
politics? An easy guess.
And
though they get high, they somehow survive
and
managed to raise three kids
(who
say they’ll visit, but never arrive).
Last
night she held him while he was asleep,
and
heard him mutter, “not nothing will keep.”
Whoever
dies first, the other will weep.
Sign on to Virtual Curley's this Tuesday, February 1, 2022, 7 pm at:
Following a protracted illness, venerated PoemAlley member Jane Weston passed away last Tuesday at the age of 92. She will be greatly missed.
Usually from the favorite vantage of a corner booth shared with her friend Norm Heller, Jane was known to the group meeting weekly at Curley's Diner and returning guest poets for her sprightly smile and well-observed feedback, imparted over a glass of wine.
While not a poet, herself, Jane was especially valued as an island of serenity when the stream of conversation got occasionally heated in response to themes raised by a particular piece of writing.
Jane was also active in the Green Party, having run for public office in Fairfield County several times, including Registrar of Voters in Weston and as Judge of Probate in Stamford (winning 11 percent of the vote). In addition, she served two terms as Co-Chair of the Green Party of Connecticut.
Services are tentatively planned for this coming Saturday or Sunday at Lacerenza Funeral Home at 8 Schuyler Avenue in Stamford; Zoom access will be provided online for those unable to attend.
Friend and fellow PA member Richard Duffee, who is Jane's conservator, can be reached at 203-278-4013 for further details.
Prolific digital artist and speculative
writer Robert Zwillig will be filling in for Frank Chambers and Ralph Nazareth as guest host of tonight's Open Mic poetry
program at Barnes & Noble in Stamford, where all are invited to have a listen, or to bring something to read, either of their own creation, or by a beloved writer.
Following up on his November featured reading, where he shared material from last June's Modern Primitive Poetry 36 Illustrated Titles With Out The Words
and other titles, Robert is a familiar, active member of Tuesday Night At
Curley's/PoemAlley and is known for his satirical genre-bending/blending approach to the associations between the environmental, the
technological and the socio/economic—not only in terms of where such associations find us at
the moment and may be taking us, but even where they might have taken us, too, as described
in the 2018 three-part short story, Steam Age Fighter.
Founded by Frank Chambers, Barnes
& Noble’s Open Mic Poetry meets the second Monday of each month in the
Music/Movies section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the
Stamford Town Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.
