Thursday: Duchovnay & Yamrus at Milkboy
Thursday night, the Mad Poets Series at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe returns to the days of yore, with a 100% poetry reading in celebration of National Poetry Month. We’re excited to feature to wonderful poets: Minna Duchovnay & John Yamrus.
We’re also psyched for the second month of our ongoing open mic contest. After last month’s reading, the leaders are Howard Lieberman, Betti Kahn, and Ben Heins. But there are still alot of open mics before November, so come on out, bring your poems & grab some votes!
Here’s a little bit about our featured poets:
Minna Canton Duchovnay
Minna Canton Duchovnay has had her poetry published in Premier Magazine, The Mad Poets Review, The Elixir, and The Swarthmorean. She previously appeared as a featured reader for the Mad Poets Society in 2008, and in the same year she won third prize in the Mad Poets Contest for her poem, “House Plants” (read it below). She has Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Latin from Bryn Mawr College, and she enjoys translating Renaissance Latin poetry as well as writing her own. She wishes she could have a dog who would listen to her recite poetry at home.
“House Plants”
~Minna Duchovnay
The house had wide windows
facing south, perfect exposure
for raising Birds of Paradise
and Queen of the Night.
Friends arrived when the Queen’s shoots
were ready to flower,
sat among the cacti,
discussing the sexuality of plants.
They sipped Grand Cru Chablis
while waiting for the ballooning of the phallic blooms.
At last the Queen’s perfume filled the room.
The celebration was enlivened
with tastings of single malt Scotch
the day eighteen Birds opened.
Oban, Bowmore, Glenmorangie,
a little Laphroaig and Macallan.
Kerri and Dean’s 14-year-old Sean
was practicing diving
while everyone admired the blossoms.
How long had there been silence?
No one knew
but the thudding of the diving board
was no longer heard.
Kerri and Dean stumbled to the pool
to search for Sean.
They found a neighbor’s daughter massaging him
as he lay shivering on the grass.
John Yamrus
Since 1970, John Yamrus has been a fixture on the small press scene. Since that time he has published 19 books, including 2 novels and 17 volumes of poetry, and he has had more than 1,200 poems published in magazines around the world. Selections of his work have been translated into several different languages including Spanish, Swedish, Italian, French, Japanese and most recently Romanian. When he joins us Thursday night at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr, Yamrus will be reading poems from his latest book, Doing Cartwheels on Doomsday Afternoon.
“in dog obedience class…”
~John Yamrus
for once,
my little Abby
did everything right.
for once,
she didn’t
bite, jump or pull.
this time
she paid attention
and sat and stayed
and came
and listened…
just like
all the other dogs.
i can’t tell you how much
i hated that.
