Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 2pm (eastern)

HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom

Anique Sara Taylor
Cate McNider
and Annual Business Meeting

Poets Anique Sara Taylor and Cate McNider will be the featured readers, along with the Annual Business Meeting, followed by an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets in person and streamed via Zoom on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 2pm (eastern).

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

Nancy's of Woodstock - Artisanal Creamery
297 Tinker St, Woodstock, NY 12498
(845)684-5329
nancysartisanal.com
(part of the Bearsville Arts complex)

*** We ask all people who wish to attend in person to self-test for Covid within 24 hours prior to the event. Self-test kits are reasonably priced and available at nearly every pharmacy. ***

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:

Anique Sara Taylor - Anique Sara Taylor’s book Civil Twilight, was chosen first prize and is forthcoming in April 2023 with Blue Light Press. Her poetry book, Where Space Bends, was published in 2020. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in Rattle, Common Ground Review, Adanna, Stillwater Review, Earth’s Daughters among others. She’s co-authored works for HBO, Scholastic, Simon&Schuster and a three-act play that was performed by Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2014 her chapbook version of Where Space Bends was chosen Finalist by both Minerva Rising and Blue Light Press’ Chapbook Competitions. In 2015 her book Under the Ice Moon was chosen Finalist by Blue Light Press’ Chapbook Competition. She holds a Poetry MFA (Drew University), Diplome in French Literature (The Sorbonne, Paris), a Drawing MFA (Pratt Institute), BFA in Painting (With Highest Honors /Pratt ) and studied Literature at Antioch College. She studied Poetry at St. Mark's Poetry Project with Alice Notley and Bernadette Mayer. An enthusiastic supporter of community education, she teaches/taught Creative Writing for Benedictine Hospital’s Oncology Support Program, the Phoenicia Poetry Workshop, Bard LLI and Writers in the Mountains.



Writing While Driving Across the Tappan Zee Bridge

A fog so dense, I drive ahead
enclosed in a separate world. A member
of the generation raised ignored and unseen, I
swallow each day like a fisherman afraid of the ocean.

The first thing I learned in college after
the in loco parentis lecture on the necessity
of virginity, was how to roll a joint. I paced corn
fields reciting poems to communities of stars, as night
sky engulfed the land. The first time I left you, I hitchhiked into
dawn, sawdust puppets tucked in a cotton laundry bag on one shoulder,
a broken guitar on the other. I boomeranged out Route 68, back to suburban
cocktail parties where adults sipped scotch, their cells embedded with cigarette smoke.

      Across the Tappan Zee, where slabs of concrete had
      crashed into the river leaving openings in pavement
      large enough to see down into the Hudson, I examine
      my wrinkled face in the mirror. A ghost of myself ringed
      with colored mists, the clown in me gives me courage.

Some pray to the crescent
moon. Some thrash their wings
unable to fly. Lucky ones drive ahead as if
there was nothing to fear. Some scribble on paper
scraps on the steering wheel, to capture whatever they can.

We balance, one-legged
toppling unmetered through dreams
to risk the unknown before the absorption
of all palpable light. We sing and we sing, wanting
only to touch the moving silhouette before it disappears

-Anique Sara Taylor

from Where Space Bends
Forthcoming from Finishing Line Press
Preorder. Ships May 1, 2020
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/where-space-bends-by-anique-sara-taylor/


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Cate McNider - Cate McNider has been writing poetry since 1986 and a resident of NYC since 1985. Her work is included in several journals and Vantage Press published her first collection in 2010. To quote the Introduction, “Cate’s poetry so often refers to the soul’s journey inwards towards self awareness…The flesh of her words interfaces nakedly with the elements.” She explores her inner depths and challenges the perceived orientation to physical reality. Through her healing journey, poetry is her record, guide and legacy.



Peace Hit Me On 3rd Avenue

The wind speaks to me
in its language:
velvet, ravenous,
torrid, tempestuous.
This time it opened a door inside,
summoned a peace in me,
to my solar plexus,
an inner calling, eyes closed
allowed entry to the Void.
I never want it to dissolve,
or be distracted - a lover
whose kisses make you tremble
at the power of their softness.

-Cate McNider

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WPS 2022 Schedule - all readings are now HYBRID: in-person & streamed via Zoom
All of 2022 Events: Events

Due to the ongoing pandemic - for now, all meetings will be held virtually via Zoom
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 following the featured readers. Thank you.

01/January 8th - Bruce Weber; Jerrice J. Baptiste via Zoom
02/February 12th - Leigh Ann Christain; Mike Jurkovic via Zoom
03/March 12th - Alison Koffler; Ken Holland via Zoom
04/April 9th - The Hudson Valley Women's Writing Group via Zoom
05/May 14th - Roger Hecht; Saida Agostini via Zoom
06/June 11th - James Reitter; Jessica Cuello via Zoom
07/July 9th - Alison Woods; Matthew Burns via Zoom
08/August 13th - Arden Levine; Marjorie Maddox via Zoom
09/September 10th - Dennis Rush; Robert Charles Basner HYBRID: in-person & streamed via Zoom
10/October 8th - Joann Deiudicibus; Thomas Festa HYBRID: in-person & streamed via Zoom
11/November 12th - Cheryl Rice; Teresa Costa HYBRID: in-person & streamed via Zoom
12/December 10th - Anique Sara Taylor; Cate McNider and Annual Business Meeting HYBRID: in-person & streamed via Zoom

Also, why not become a 2022 Member or donate to the Woodstock Poetry Society?

Membership is $20 a year. (To join or donate, 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 our upgraded Zoom account, 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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