Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, January 13th, 2024 at 2pm
Woodstock Library

HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom

Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Robert P Langdon

Poets Patrick Hammer, Jr. and Robert P Langdon will be the featured readers, along with an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets in person and streamed via Zoom on Saturday, January 13th, 2024 at 2pm(eastern).

WPS meetings are held the 2nd Saturday (2pm) of every month.

Woodstock Library
5 Library Lane, Woodstock, NY 12498
(845)679-2213
www.woodstock.org

The Zoom app can be downloaded here: Zoom Download Center

To attend: contact phillip@woodstockpoetry.com to receive Zoom info
If attending, please indicate if you would like to be on the open mike. Thank you.

The reading will be hosted by poet Phillip X Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

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Features:

Patrick Hammer, Jr. - Patrick Hammer, Jr. lives in the Village of Saugerties. He is formerly from Fort Lee and Paramus, NJ, by way of The Bronx. Hammer has been writing poetry and short fiction since the mid-70s. He was active in the Northern New Jersey and NYC poetry scenes, and co-lead the Wild Angels Writing Group for a decade at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. He has published extensively in small literary magazines. Together with Robert Langdon they founded the Blue Stone Poets Group of Saugerties. Hammer has published eight chapbooks of poetry, some of which he has for sale today.



Rainbows Over Cork-Kerry

We drive after rain
through Ballydaly to Rathmore
on the Cork-Kerry border
en route to Killarney.

It’s rained hard, hail
hit our windshield
but there’s fine sun now
and an ample blue sky.

Of course the gold,
of course the promise
of no world-ending flood
ever again.

We spot a brilliant
double rainbow. We know
the science of these things, but
the lyricism of this image spellbinds.

O these wide-arching bows
in vivid yellow-blue bands.
They seem to move with us
over acres of farmland as we drive.

We seek an arc on one side
anchored to land, shimmering
in luminescence, a transfiguration.
Suddenly everything dissolves.

We’ve found our pot of gold:
witnessing this gift of nature unfold.

-Patrick Hammer, Jr.

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Robert P Langdon - Robert Langdon has been writing poetry and the occasional short fiction since the late 1980s. He began writing after being exposed to the poetry of Anne Sexton and discovering, through her writing, that poetry can be exciting and accessible. He is drawn to strong imagery and is influenced by confessional poetry and the works of Sexton, Sharon Olds, Diane Ackerman, Robert Lowell, Ai, and Gregory Orr among others. Robert’s own writing tends to focus on issues of identity and he uses poetry as a way to work through personal issues and reflect on meaningful events in his life. He is the proprietor of Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, NY.



Combing Her Hair

Hair standing on end. Far from the quaffed doo she was used to.
The hairdresser she once was would be wounded by what she sees now,
but her hands gave up and she can no longer grip a comb.

Resignation hangs on her face like a cross. She no longer looks in the mirror,
staring at her reflection and plucking stray hairs. Now she’s afraid of the shell
she’ll see staring back. The whiskers circle her chin now. Pointing. Mocking.

The bald spots at the back of her head are rubbed bare from months of laying
in a hospital bed. Its a blessing she cant see them, red and raw like a bad sunburn.
I run a comb through her hair, its teeth tugging, grasping knots. Holding on.

She closes her eyes. The comb runs through smooth now. She’s comforted.
I don’t have the heart to tell her that a hair comes loose with each stroke.
I swaddle strands in my hand and slip it into my pocket.
I’ll hide it someplace safe and never let her go.

-Robert P Langdon

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Developing WPS 2024 Schedule - now in-person at the Woodstock Library and via Zoom
All WPS Events: Events

01/January 13th - Patrick Hammer, Jr.; Robert Langdon
02/February 10th - Lissa Kiernan; Mary K O'Melveny
03/March 9th - Ethan Sirotko; Janet Kaplan
04/April 13th - Poetry Month Special Event ("Unbroken Circle")
05/May 11th - Roger Mitchell; Steve Clorfeine
06/June 8th - Barry Wallenstein; Richard Levine
07/July 13th - Karen Schoemer; Martin Steingesser
08/August 10th - Craig Hancock; Marnie Andrews
09/September 14th - Christopher Heffernan; Jerrice J. Baptiste
10/October 12th - Joann Deiudicibus; Thomas Festa
11/November 9th - Judy Lechner; Teresa Costa
12/December 14th - H.R. Webster; Ken Holland and Annual Business Meeting

Also, why not become a 2024 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society?

Membership is $20 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number. Or join online at: www.woodstockpoetry.com/become.html). Your membership helps pay for meeting space rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

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