Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, December 8th, 2018 at 2pm
Golden Notebook (Upstairs)


Town of Catskill Poets:

Andrea Mitchell
Brian Dewan
Carlo DeVito
Tom Bonville

and the Annual Business Meeting

Town of Catskill Poets: Andrea Mitchell, Brian Dewan, Carlo DeVito, and Tom Bonville will be the featured readers, along with the WPS Annual Business Meeting, and an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets at Golden Notebook (Upstairs), 29 Tinker Street on Saturday, December 8th, 2018 at 2pm.

Note: WPS meetings are held the 2nd Saturday (2pm) of every month at Golden Notebook (Upstairs).

Golden Notebook (Upstairs)
29 Tinker Street
Woodstock, NY 12498
www.goldennotebook.com
845-679-8000

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:
Andrea Mitchell - Andrea Mitchell lives in Catskill with her witty and handsome partner, Mike and their two sons; Phoenix, who is amazing and cautious, and Kaj, who is awesome and smart.

She has been writing poetry her entire life and finds that asking people to describe themselves in one or two words is a great way to get to get to the root of who they are. She would say she's an intriguing mess.



i don't believe any of the corinthians were ever in love

They say that love is patient and kind
but i have never seen that
I have seen love rushed
I have seen wild unrealistic expectation
i have seen love crossed with hatred in such a way that you don’t know if you should fight
or fuck
or leave
and they say it doesn't envy
thats its not proud
but when i see him plastering pictures of her all over the internet
and you can't even look at me across a crowded room
and she gets flowers while i get fights
across the kitchen table
then i know they were wrong
on both counts
and they say its not easily angered
but then they never had to love you
or me
they say it keeps no record of wrongdoing
and that's a lie
a straight up
no grey area
unapologetic
capital
l
i
e
they say it rejoices in truth
but the love i know is made up of white lies connected with half truths
that make up the whole of what i chose to tell you to protect our love from your fast judgement
and i'm not exactly sure if that's what they meant when they said love protects
but it's what i know
they say that love has hope
and i believe them
but i believe every situation has hope
and even when you tell me i’m unrealistic
i realize i'd rather be an optimist
and hold hope that someday
this will get better
they say love trusts
and i believe that too

because even when you let me down
i trust you
even when you straight up lie
i trust you
even when you break me down and make me cry
i trust you
they say that love perseveres
and i’ll come back to that
they say that love never fails, but i mess up every day
and for every moment that our love soars
it sinks
and for every time we triumph
it is countered
for every up
a down
because love is a crazy emotion
it is big
and wild
and i don’t know how to love you
without hating you sometimes
but love perseveres
in spite of our best efforts and worst tries
in spite of our snark and sarcasm
our back handed comments
and harsh criticism
in spite of us
love perseveres
and so i’m trashing corinthians
because i don't believe that any of them were ever in love
not really
so i’m taking the most quoted bible verses and i’m dismissing them
i’m taking that bit of the good book read at every wedding and rewriting it

love is wild
love is untamed and unpredictable
love is not always kind
or sweet
or comfortable
love is tricky
love is work
love has dark nights and low patches and bad times
love isn't just good times
its bad times too
because in the low in the dark
in the worst of it
that's where my true love lives

-Andrea Mitchell

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Brian Dewan - Brian Dewan is a visual artist and musician represented by Pierogi gallery in New York City. His I-CAN-SEE filmstrips have been screened at The Whitney Museum Of American Art, The New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Tang Museum, Modern Art Oxford and The Museum Of Jurassic Technology. All of the images in the filmstrips are ink and watercolor paintings or ink and marker drawings.

His published audio recordings include Tells The Story, The Operating Theater, Words Of Wisdom, The Hunting Of The Snark and Ringing At The Speed Of Prayer. Narrative songs, collected historical folk and popular music, sung with accompaniment on electric zither, autoharp or accordion as well as instrumental music for organ, musical stones, electronic instruments, bells and percussion. He lives in Catskill, NY.



They’re making a movie

They’re making a movie about a shark
You see all those people, at those picnic tables?
They’re making the movie

Just off the shore there you see that cage
Sticking out of the water
That’s where they keep the mechanical shark

It’s in a cage to protect it from curious sea life
It can’t keep off the barnacles though
So they get a snorkeler to scrape them off regularly

There’s a schedule on a screen door
Half way down it says
Victim: 3 pm

Have you seen this movie Shark?
It’s about this mechanical shark that eats people
It came to life one day, like Pinoccio

Everyone’s afraid of it
Because it could eat them up, like a real shark
But they’re not afraid riding around in cars

You’re more likely to be killed in a car, or by one
But you don’t see anyone saying,
“You couldn’t pay me to ride in one of those things.”

-Brian Dewan

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Carlo DeVito - Carlo DeVito is a lifelong publishing executive with more than 20 years of experience. He has written more than 20 books, publishes a highly-acclaimed wine blog, and is owner of the Hudson-Chatham Winery. His most recent books include INVENTING SCROOGE: The Incredible True Story Behind Charles Dickens' Legendary "A Christmas Carol", A MARK TWAIN CHRISTMAS: A Journey Across Three Christmas Seasons, and MARK TWAIN'S NOTEBOOKS: Journals, Letters, Observations, Wit, Wisdom, and Doodles. He has been profiled or reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Hartford Courant, The Asbury Park Press, The Washington Post, as well as having appeared on NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX.
carlodevito.wordpress.com



The Scarecrow's Lament

The emerald Gotham sparkles.
Flags flutter. The the halls echo with song.
The horse of a different color whinnies
and neighs and prances.
But without you, Dorothy
The panes are shuttered, black.

I have lived many lives
A man in many guises
Loved a woman
Raised a family
Farmed the land til it gave forth

But it was not until Oz filled my head with bran, and, pins and needles,
proffering his diploma that I finally knew one truth.
I slumbered through countless years
I studied the skies, guarded
The crops and battled the crows
Content in the cycles of nature.

But I was never fully awake
As when we adventured together.

I am not sure where you are
Which road you are on
Or if it is the same as mine.

But You are the flesh and blood
Of my dreams. In them
Your hands reach for me,
Your arms encircle me,
Your lips welcome me.

How does a farmer's hand
Entice a princess?
Oz did not bestow enough logic
To understand

The tenderness of your touch
The warmth of your eyes
The heat of your body
The strength of your hips
I see in my dreams each night

I yearn for your laugh
I desire your intellect
I envy your zest

Inside these ragged discards
There is enough tenderness and brawn
to weather many seasons still.

But How I wish those ruby slippers
Might click right now
And bring you to me
And give rise to my soul once more.

-Carlo DeVito

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Tom Bonville - I have lived within two miles of railroads and the Hudson River all my life. I regularly read, write and converse with the Rensselaerville Poets, as well as participate in open mics including 394 Main, in Catskill.

I will have two poems published in Up The River, Issue Six, in the fall of 2018.



The Tests

My dear friend of nearly forty years tells me
on the phone about being part of an interview team,
to find the best candidate to run for an important
political office in her voting district.
She likes one woman in particular,
a person who has the fire in her belly, has the smarts,
enough experience to compete and win.
“Oh, by the way,” Marcy says,
“I have brain cancer.
They are going to drill a hole in my skull,
insert a stent, use it as a delivery system.
I start chemo next week.”
Then she tells me about how
her car didn’t start the week before,
turned out to be a bad battery,
a surprise, since the car was just two years old.
“I guess you never know about cars,” Marcy says,
“when something might go wrong.”
I agree, barely managing a one-word answer, my voice cracking.
Finally, I am able to say: “How did you find out?”
“Oh,” she says, “the mechanic at the garage told me.
He ran some tests.

-Tom Bonville

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Developing WPS 2018 Schedule - all readings at Golden Notebook (Upstairs)
All of 2018 Events: Events

01/January 13th - Philip Pardi; Sparrow
02/February 10th - Frank Boyer; Philip Fried
03/March 10th - Cheryl Rice; Guy Reed
04/April 14th - Donald Lev; Mary Leonard
05/May 12th - Judith Saunders; Lucia Cherciu
06/June 9th - Dennis & Justin Bressack
07/July 14th - Marcia Slatkin; Therese L. Broderick
08/August 11th - Alison Koffler; Perry S. Nicholas
09/September 8th - Catherine Arra; Matthew J. Spireng
10/October 13th - Barbara Elovic; Carl Rosenstock; Richard Levine
11/November 10th - Janet Hamill; Teresa Costa
12/December 8th - Andrea Mitchell; Brian Dewan; Carlo DeVito; Tom Bonville and Annual Business Meeting

Also, why not become a 2018 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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