The Mad Poets Blog

Tamara Oakman, of Philadelphia, has recently completed “Snatch” her MAE thesis project at Arcadia University. She’s been published in Mad Poets Review, Philadelphia Stories, Best of Philladelphia Stories, Many Mountains Moving, and other journals. She runs a series at the Parkway Central Library called The Light of Unity Artist’s and Writer’s Series 2009.

Earlier this year, Tamara initiated a new poetry workshop series for the Mad Poets Society. The Business of Words workshop meets at the University of Pennsylvania Bookstore on the 2nd Saturday of every month, from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. (The next meeting is Sept 13th.)  You can check her out sooner by heading over to Milkboy Acoustic Cafe this Thursday at 7 p.m. for the Mad Poets Hosts Reading.

Mary Kathryn Morgeneier and all of her various personalities (Kat, Kate, Katie, Mary K, etc.) live in harmony in Phoenixville, PA, where she hosts the Mad Poets Steel City Coffeehouse open mic.

Katie was a born poet, who began telling stories as early as six years old — in her first confession. “As the line to the confessional grew shorter and shorter, I remember working my thumbs into a nervous tizzy,” she explains. “Finally my turn. Bless me Father for I have sinned; it has been no time since my last confession. And then I proceeded to lay a series of colorful but untrue crimes on him. I got ten Hail Marys for my sins, and an extra twenty Hail Marys for lying in my first confession.”

From there, the poetry flowed! Katie says she’s been writing for most of her life but has only been sharing her poetry publicly since joining Mad Poets three years ago.  Like her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, Katie’s poems are often observations of daily life; she also writes about social issues and personal relationships.

Katie took the reigns of the Steel City Coffeehouse open mic just this year. Her reading is a combination of poetry and music. “The evening turns into a great celebration of the human spirit,” she explains. “Once in awhile it seems that all of the music, poetry, and spoken word resonates with everyone–as if we had all arrived there by divine appointment. It can seem very magical. It’s never dull!”

The Steel City readings happen on the 1st Tuesday of every month; the next one is Sept 1st at 7pm. But, you can catch Katie reading with a slew of other host poets this Thursday at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr.

Glenn McLaughlin, of Pottstown, PA, is a substitute teacher, recovering bio-tech start up executive, and host of Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill’s. He will join several other poets this week at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr for a table turning evening when the hosts become poets.

University studies in chemistry, years of running and cycling combined with decades of sales in the plastics industry finally led to something worthwhile when his poems began arriving about 10 years ago.  Actually, Glenn can remember almost exactly when his first poem came: “Late April 1997, I think the second half of the month, driving home from Boston, at night, right about when I got on the Jersey Turnpike after crossing the GW Bridge.”

Glenn McLaughlin (the pretty "lady" in the sparkly dress) with G. Emil Reutter at the MPS Book Party

Glenn joined the Mad Poets Society about 5 or so years ago, and since then has spiced up the annual Mad Poets Journal Book Party by dressing in drag. (Yup, that’s him in the dress!)  About three years ago he decided to start a reading series in Pottstown, Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill’s.  ”First, I got tired of having to drive forever to get to a reading if I wanted to hear some good poems,” Glenn explains. “Second, Tanna, the owner of Churchill, wanted to add something to town, something artistic. We started talking one day and the rest is, as they say, history.”

Richard Moyer, of Berwyn, currently hosts the open mic poetry series at the Gryphon Cafe in Wayne. Richard has been published in more than 25 small books including The Main Street Rag, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Willard and Maple, The Endicott Review, Free Verse, The Pink Cadillac, Small Pond Magazine of Literature, The Mad Poet’s Review and others. He has an AB in English from Harvard, an MH (Master of Humanities) from The University of Richmond, and an MA in English from Temple.

Richard is a rare blend of poet and business enthusiast.  “I have been writing poetry off and on all my life — or at least since my sophomore year at Harvard in 1950,” he explains.  His favorite poet is William Carlos Williams, and his favorite poem “The Red Wheelbarrow.” “I sure wish I’d written this poem,” he says.  (Don’t we all!)  He adds that his favorite hobby is following the stock market. “I love to turn on the TV late at night and listen to Bloomberg and what is happening in the Asian Stockmarkets.”

Richard has been a member of the Mad Poets Society for 10 years, having been introduced the group by a friend and former MPS member. He’s been opening the open series at the Gryphon for about five years.  Each month, about five to seven poets gather in the upstairs room at the Gryphon.

“I start off the meeting with a reading from an established poet and then everyone in a circle reads their poems for another two hours,” Richard explains.  This series is special because it allows poets the opportunity to really practice reading and hearing their own poems.

The group meets about four times per year. The next open mic reading at the Grypon is scheduled for September 21 at 7pm.

Amy E. Laub, of Upper Darby, claims that her poems pretty much write themselves – she just takes notes as fast as she can.  A long-time member of the Mad Poets Society, Amy hosts the MPS Critique Circle on first Wednesdays in Media, Pa.  She also works tirelessly as an assistant editor for the Mad Poets Review. When she’s not busting her hump (for free) for the Mad Poets, Amy gets paid to be a full-time secretary for a public school district.

Amy began writing poems in the third grade when her teacher, Mrs. Clothier, assigned Thanksgiving poems. She found the Mad Poets Society in the late 90s thanks to a flyer in the Media Town Mall.  And thankfully for us, she has been leading the Mad Poets Critique Circle since the fall of 2003.

“The Circle started in April 2003,” Amy explains. “[That fall] Eileen D’Angelo asked me if could take over hosting it.  I was — and still am — honored and thrilled to do so.”

Amy says the Critique Circle includes about 30 local poets, about eight to 12 of whom get together on the first Wednesday of the month at the Media-Upper Providence Free Library.  “We read our original poems and discuss how to improve them,” Amy explains. “The group is warm, friendly, humorous, constructive, and diplomatic.  I find it enormously helpful with my writing.  Newcomers are always welcome.”

Amy is inspired by pay raises, naps, and anything chocolate (it’s pretty hard to argue with those!).  She despises pantyhose and will only wear them if she’ll be rewarded with an open bar (fair enough). Her favorite poet is Sharon Black, a local poet who lives in Wallingford, PA.   The one poem she wishes she’d written:

empty bench–

rain
sits down.

~by Joel Weishaus

Amy’s own aesthetic is simple, but not simplistic.  She excels at finding depth in the “mundane.”  As a poet and poetry leader, Amy is fresh and honest.  Her’s is definitely a voice you should stop and listen to, attentively.  So, come out and do that on August 13th why don’t you??

Autumn Konopka, of Glenside, Pa., hosts the Mad Poets Society’s monthly reading at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr, serves as the (ever procrastinating) MPS web czar & lead blogger, and rarely writes about herself in the third person (except for right now).

Autumn has published some poems, won some awards, gotten some degrees, and taught a few classes.  She’s got a book that nobody has published yet (any takers??).  Over the past year or so, she’s taken a break from teaching and publishing while she focuses on being a full-time stay at home mom to her rambunctious little son.  In her “free” time, she’s honing her baking skills, blogging, and occassionally publishing arts & culture articles for Philly2Philly.com.

Autumn has been an active member of the Mad Poets since about 2001.   “I met Eileen at an open mic, she suggested I send a poem to the Mad Poets contest, so I did,” Autumn explains. “When I won an award (the illustrious 8th honorable mention), I knew this was an organization I need to be a part of.”

Seriously, Autumn explains, after her first Mad Poets Festival she was hooked.  She quickly learned about the myriad Mad Poets events and became a regular at the series at the Barnes & Noble in Bryn Mawr.  A few years later when that series needed a host, Autumn was happy to jump in.  “As soon as I started going to readings, I knew I wanted to be a host,” Autumn explains. “The two-poem limit of the open mic just didn’t do it for me.  I like being up on stage more than that!”

That’s only partly true.  Autumn, who has been hosting for about 5 years now, also believes its important for poets to not take themselves or their poetry too seriously.  She works hard to keep her readings lively and playful.  She thinks its the host’s job to make everyone comfortable and to make poetry accessible.  Most of the time, the crowds seem to respond.  Autumn has been called “a lively exuberant poet” and a “charming and gracious” poetry host. (*Blush*)

Autumn is particularly excited to be hosting the hosts, and reading with them, on August 13th.  She has some fun surprises in mind to keep the hosts and the audience on their toes.

Arlene Bernstein (alias Fern deBlanc), of Media, Pa., has been published in local and national journals, has won several contests, has performed in venues of all types, has been twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes in poetry and non-fiction. She promotes the work of other poets and musicians through Friends of Poetry, which she founded in 2004.  She remains one of America’s most widely unpublished writers, still waiting to be discovered — a la Lana Turner!  But you can discover her on August 13th, when Arlene reads with several other poet-hosts at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr.

Vibrant, funny, stylish, Arlene brings a distinctive savoire faire to the poetry scene.  Her poetry is blends spunky contemporary wit and contemplation, always with a nod to our classical predecessors. It’s no surprise that some of Arlene’s favorite poets are Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Andrew Marvel, and “almost every 17th-century British poet.” She also loves T.S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, Stanley Kunitz, Rilke, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, Gabriel Mistral.

Arlene’s been leading poetry gatherings since 2004, when her friend arranged and introduced her first public performance at the Bala Cynwyd Library.  The event drew such a big crowd, Arlene says, that the Librarian invited her to host a monthly series.  She hosted that series for a year, then added series at the Belmont Hills Library and at local coffeeshops, then moved on to a series at Seven Stones in Media.

“Hosting was fun,” Arlene says.  “I always tried to focus on presenting lively and somewhat lighthearted evenings of poetry, music, conversation, and refreshments.”

Although she’s been been writing poetry and fiction for more than 60 years (which is pretty amazing, since she can’t be a day over 45!), Arlene became a Mad Poet in 2005, after a friend brought her to the Mad Poets Festival in Media. She started hosting for the MPS in 2007, taking the reigns of the semi-annual “Madness” series that took place at Lori Cosgrove Design. In 2009, the Seasonal Madness Series, and its charismatic hostess, relocated to Media Borough Hall.  The next reading, A Little Autumn Madness, is scheduled for September 25 featuring poets Ashraf Osman, Brian Sammond, and Lisa DeVuono, along with musicians Michael London, Johnny Never, and Tom Mullian.

In Arlene’s words:  “The venue is beautiful (a Victorian Grand Parlour adjacent to the Media Police Station); the poets and musicians are accomplished; the open mic is spirited; the refreshments outstanding! Friday night is a perfect night for relaxing, so be sure to attend in September 25! We usually draw from 30 to 40 people, so it’s never like preaching to the choir!”

Check it out:

Our own Steve Delia is featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer today, in an article about the upcoming Philadelphia Writers Conference. Click here for the article.

Yay Steve!!

THURS., SEPTEMBER 6^TH, AT 7 PM

MAD POETS present A SMATTERING OF NEW VOICES, featuring ANNA MENDOZA, ADAM COBEN & ALLA VILNYANSKAYA (See bio notes below!) at MILK BOY COFFEE /ACOUSTIC CAFE, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., in the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (Bryn Mawr, PA 19010); Tel: 610-527-0690, hosted by AUTUMN KONOPKA! Check out our newest venue and find out what everyone is talking about! AND HANG AROUND AFTERWARDS! At 9 pm, there will be music at Milk Boy !! Our reading will run from 7-9 pm, then MUSIC. Stay tuned for other upcoming mad events, some mentioned below – For info, see www.madpoetssociety.com (Also, at the bottom – a little appeal from your “mad” editor.)

(Continued)

Arlene Bernstein worked first as a proofreader/editor in
Manhattan before moving on to a long career as a Philadelphia high school English teacher. In December 2004, she made her debut as a performance poet and event organizer at the Bala Cynwyd Library — presenting her “Friends of Poetry” Series through December 2005. Her poetry has been published in Freshet, Mad Poets Review, Ink, Tracks, Nature in Legends and Literature, and Schuylkill Vallery Journal of the Arts; her recent article, “Richard William Pearce, Lost Child” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Arlene is affiliated with Mad Poets Society; Freshmeadow Poets of Flushing, NY; Broadacres Poets of Narberth, PA; and Bonnie Baillis’ Poetry Circle of Havertown, PA.   

The Interview:

Q. How has your career in the public school system influenced your poetry and did your love of poetry influence students?

It seems to me that my career in the public school system galvanized my psyche, instructing me even more about the pathos and brutality of life than I knew, instinctively, from birth onward. It helped force me even more inward than I was naturally and thus, probably helped deepen my work.  Did it provide new subject matter?  While it might have to another, less internal poet, it did not to me.  It probably, in some bizarre way, aided me in compacting and refining my longing to escape from worldly and external trivia.  I sought diversion within.  Strangely enough, my love of poetry did enhance my teaching!  I tried always to teachwhat I had been taught at Girls High and the University of Pennsylvania.  I offered always what I loved, because honesty and integrity were my sole weapons against the preponderance  of apathy and hostility encountered over a period of thirty-two years at the same inner city high school.  My determination to be “in it” but not “of it” enabled me to reach whatever open minds and hearts I encountered. Poetry of love and despair throughout the ages was my forte, and those damned kids perceived, if not the nuances, the power of the  passion which I brought to unearthing the passion within the work and within them.  In my choice of  teaching material I never conceded to the modern concept of  “relevance.”  I never taught anything I would be embarrassed to claim as my own.

Q. Who were the major influences on you as you developed as a poet/writer?

The first and earliest influences on my voice were the Old Testament and the great fairy tales of Grimm and all those incredibly rich classic children’s books I devoured in the sunny library at 4^th and Shunk Streets.  In school, each morning, we heard the cadences and diction of the King James Version, a training in English forever lost to today’s school children because of a perverted sense of political correctness.This influence remains with me, as do the complex sinewy sentence structure of John Donne and Andrew Marvell.  I love the argumentativeness of Shakespeare’s soliloquies, the forcefulness of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, the amazingly tight/freestructure of T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock, the wrenching power and extraordinary ideation of May Sarton and Stanley Kunitz, the brash songs of Emily Dickinson, the bitterness of Robert Lowell.  I tend to look on the contemporary work so heralded by many of my peers as kind of nice but superficial ephemera….Billy Collins comes to mind. 

Q. “The Friends of Poetry” series ran into 2005. What challenges did you face as the host of the series and what were the benefits?

The first Friends of Poetry Series ran for one full year at the Bala Cynwyd Library. I may sound like a braggart when I say that it was the liveliest and best attended series I have ever encountered in my four-year little journey around the area poetry circuits. We averaged audiences of twenty-five  and had forty-five once or twice.  The biggest challenge was the head Librarian, Jean Knapp, who told me that as far as she was concerned the series was NOT a success because when I brought “my people” there on Wednesday nights she had no place to park her car!  Furthermore, everywhere she looked she saw my name and the name of the Library getting “too much” publicity!  Needless to say, I didn’t want to be beholden to such a mean-spirited “benefactor,” and so I had to scramble around for new digs.  But the benefits far outweighed the shock of Jean’s words.  I got to know Eileen D’Angelo, who helped me enormously in every way; I kind of created an audience, who kind of followed me to new settings; I learned how much work there is behind the glamour of performance.  Finally,  I met many of the wonderful people with whom I still enjoy comradeship in Poetry and Fun!

Q. You are one of the “go to” people for the Mad Poets Society. You will be hosting an open mic for First Fridays in Bryn Mawr and “A Little Summer Madness” in Prospect Park. What should one expect when attending an event hosted by Arlen Bernstein?

What a wonderfully whimsical question, Emil!  My philosophy of poetry performancemaintains that, at public events, the audience wants to be stimulated, aroused, satisfied!!!Oh, yeah, they will hear our laments and dirges in sympathetic silence….listen to our complaints about the world with rueful agreement…think about the deep thoughts we utter and nod intelligently!   But actually, I think what they crave more than anything is  pleasure…and, if not laughter, they want to be able to cry and feel and react with passion and excitement.  They do want catharsis.  They don’t want TOO  much solemnity or gravity.  They DON’T want preaching!  They want what they didn’t know they wanted!  They want novelty!  They want to be surprised, caught off guard.  They want to feel they are part of a celebration.  They want joy.  In my (possibly deluded)mind, this is what I feel inspired to convey.  Just as I was painfully honest with my huddled (and hostile) masses of students yearning to be free, I do allow my audiences to see me as I am with all my warty quirks.  

Q. Skin Radio recently held a poetry slam with poets who have read on their station reading live. How does it feel to have your poetry on the radio exposing your work to a whole new audience?

Oh, broadcasting for Skin Radio was a hoot. Of course, I have no idea who heard me or whether they found my work valuable.  I would be happy to have other stations, like WXPN, replicate the project.  They stick to established organizational patterns, however,like promulgating  Kelley’s Writers House events…which is fine…not my cup of tea, usually, because of its , to MY ears, doctrinaire and political approach to poetry.  Tom Kelley was willing to take it as it lays….recording and playing an incredibly wide variety of stuff right off the street, so to speak.  We need a lot more of that.  We need to provide distribution to the mavericks and independent cusses of the poetry world.  Don’t worry:  the good stuff will rise to the top. 

Q. Your poetry has been published widely; in fact you received a pushcart nomination for “Richard William Pearce-Lost Child”. What direction do you see your poetry, fiction and non-fiction moving in?

The Pushcart Prize nomination was for an article in Peter Krok’s Schyllkill Valley Journal, an honor which I really appreciated.  I wish the rest of your question were as simple to answer. Sometimes the direction in which my writing and I both move seems to be circular!  At other times I like to think I discern a spiral.  Seriously, however, I think I need more than anything to consolidate my work and spend the energy necessary for decent publication.  A dear friend and colleague recently and ruefully observed that most of us get lots of individual pieces published in journals that nobody – - including ourselves – -ever read or even heard of before we sent off a poem to them!  And that’s so true.   What to do about that irony? But your question wasn’t about that.  So let me return to our muttons!  I seem never to tire of examining the vicissitudes of romantic/erotic love, so I don’t foresee any changes there.  I have a memoir that cries for many more chapters and several ideas for novels,beyond the one I’ve been hacking away at for such a long time!  But the inner direction  seems to be toward simplification of discourse.  I’m annoyed with my own prolixity.  I yearn for a style ….well, more like the 23^rd Psalm, for example.  And now that I’ve moved away (finally!) from  frantic Philadelphia to the calm sweet rationally displayed structure of downtown Media, where I sit serenely in my lovely little space at my big desk before an oversized window framing a magnificent old five-pronged Silver Ash, who know?  My muses may coax me into allowing passage to all I feel and want to express.    

 Q. You have read your work at a number of venues in the Philadelphia area. Do you have a favorite venue?

I don’t have a favorite venue.  The most spectacular was at the Sculpture Gardens in Hamilton New Jersey, their glass-domed auditorium a perfect container for the electrical storm raging outdoors as I read on the anniversary of my brother’s death in Viet Nam, August 25.  Big Blue Marble Bookstore is cozy and colleagueial. The Science Institute, here in Media,  is fun with all those stuffed animals!  I especially love reading at Belmont Hills Library because Pat Rayfield is the perfect patron of the arts, regaling us with good food and encouraging us to remain well beyond ordinary library closing hours.  I definitely disdain any venue, be it EVER  so famous or hallowed,  that is so interested in closing on time that it actually kicks you out early, depriving your open mic hopefuls of their few extra minutes on stage! 

Q. In addition to the Mad Poets events you also host several open mics at The Seven Stones Café in Media, Allies Flower Basket and Tea Shop in Bala Cynwyd and a quarterly series at The Belmont Hills Library. Where do you get the time to run the series and continue to write?

Actually Emil,  several months ago I turned both those venues over to different hosts:  Bill Danks now hosts at Seven Stones, here in Media, and Lynn Blue now hosts at Tim and Allie’s.  I still do the  four seasonal-change events at Belmont Hills Library, although I had to cancel the June event featuring the wonderful John Amen because I could not do the work attendant upon publicizing and organizing as a consequence of the huge move I made from Philly to Media, selling and packing up a house occupied for almost thirty years and moving into a three-room apartment!

I also host the Lori Cosgrove Mad Poets Quarterly Series, the next of which comes up on July 13, and I’ll be hosting on July 6 for Mad Poets at the new Acoustic Milkboy Coffee in Bryn Mawr. Now listen closely while I reveal the Great Secret of Time:  If you are lucky enough to get to be as old as I, you get to “retire” from paid work,  and then you get to  “play” for  NO  pay other than   the delight and joy of being mistress of your own (remaining mortal) hours.  

Q. Are you working on any new projects or poetry series?

I am definitely in the market for more individual readings engagements!!!  Anybody  looking to engage me?   Check out a few of my poems on www.friendsofpoetry.com  or email me requesting samples.  I LOVE performing my work, solo or with other poets.