Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, December 12th, 2026 at 1pm (new time)
Woodstock Library
Kemp Battle
Marnie Andrews
and Annual Business Meeting
HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom
Poets Kemp Battle and Marnie Andrews
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 (and www.facebook.com/phillip.levine/)
on Saturday, December 12th, 2026 at 2pm(eastern)
WPS meetings are now held the 2nd Saturday (1pm) of every month. New time.
Woodstock Library
10 Dixon Ave (new location)
Woodstock, NY 12498
(845)679-2213
www.woodstock.org
The Zoom app can be downloaded here: Zoom
Download Center
To attend virtually: contact phillip@woodstockpoetry.com
to receive Zoom info
If attending via Zoom, please indicate if you would like to be on the open
mike. Thank you.
Beginning in Feb, 2023 we have been meeting in-person at the Woodstock Library
and virtually via Zoom (and streamed live at: https://www.facebook.com/phillip.levine/).
The reading will be hosted by poet Phillip X Levine. All meetings are free,
open to the public, and include an open mike.
*
Features:
Kemp Battle - coming soon
coming soon
coming soon
-Kemp Battle
*
Marnie Andrews - In April 2026, Marnie was honored with the
publication of two of her poems in a collection compiled by Ellen Burstyn,
Poetry Says It Better, Harper Collins, publishers. She also received
a grant from the Berrilla Kerr Playwriting Award after submitting her one
woman show Singer.
Most of her living comes from work in the performing arts, primarily as an
actress in LA and NYC. Having worked in all genres of plays, she remains focused
on the development of new work.
Directing plays began in her thirties, to have a stronger voice in collaboration
with playwrights’ words. As a writer, she worked as a journalist, primarily
for European magazines, traveling with her photographer/husband, Jeff Jacobson.
She collaborates with composers as a lyricist. She has also taught in several
colleges, including NYU, U/Albany, and USC Graduate Film program.
Currently, she is developing a body of work combining written word with storytelling.
The aim is to create a book, working title “Open to Surprise,”
as well as perform stories online and in person.
In 2020, Marnie was invited to a writing group, The Grind, a collective that
commits to write a draft each day for a month and submit it online. She has
written most months on the Grind since then.
Day 10. The rain speaks
In the length of one day…
up, so high in the morning,
sleeping until
a reasonable hour.
Search the days within
memory’s reach,
there is no better rising.
Energy to move,
and a conversation
with great friends.
Still, the loss begins
to show itself,
a brother has died,
and we must comfort
from a distance.
Before that zoom ends,
another friend bursts in
after a meeting
at the sangha she attends.
A member there unraveled his story,
he and his brother
survived the murder
of their mother when
they were teens.
Now, his brother came
out of retirement
to run a unit of ICE
in Minneapolis.
When this narrator
replied to his sibling’s story with
“I hope you don’t murder anyone.”
and “I hope you don’t get murdered.”
The brother, angered and hurt, hung up.
The man then said,
“I wrote my brother,
I love you.”
After she told me
of his story,
my friend and I opened
some of our hard moments
from our pasts to each other.
We had a meal.
We walked.
She went home.
Then rain arrived as
night came on.
The rain speaks,
the rain says
the story of a day
will change.
Hold what you can,
remember that which gives
something worth remembering.
For it will change
like the rain that comes
to wash the day away.
-Marnie Andrews
*
WPS 2026 Schedule - now in-person at the Woodstock Library and via
Zoom
All WPS Events: Events
01/January 10th - Ethan Sirotko; Janet Kaplan
02/February 14th - Tina Barry; Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller
03/March 14th - Michael Cohen; Rhonda Rosenheck note: new time 1pm
04/April 11th - Poetry Month Special Event - "Poetry as Resistance"
05/May 9th - Marianna Boncek; Richard Parisio
06/June 13th - Judith Kerman; William Seaton
07/July 11th - Allen Shadow; Carol Graser
08/August 8th - Cheryl Rice; Leslie Gerber
09/September 12th - Philip Pardi; Wendy Kagan
10/October 10th - Darcy Smith; Raphael Moser
11/November 14th - Denise La Neve; Robyn Hager
12/December 12th - Kemp Battle; Marnie Andrews and Annual Business Meeting
Follow the WPS on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WoodstockPoetry
and why not become a 2026 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society?
Membership is a tax deductible $20 a year. (To join, send your check to the
Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Please include
your email address. 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.
Note that WPS is a registered 501c3 (and NYS Charity).
One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and
several of your poems appear on this website. Numerous bios, poems, and pictures
of past and present WPS members are available here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/members.html
and here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/poems.html.
(click here to close this window)