Sea Poems at St. John’s!

Here I was on Tuesday night 10/29/13, the one-year anniversary of Sandy’s rude arrival in New York, sounding out the sea poetry in a reading organized by Underwater New York and the Silent Beaches show.

After an intro by the three ingenitors of Underwater NY, the event started with an “Ode to Far Rockway” read by Nicole Cirino to mark the day. Then Bob Fanuzzi spun a gorgeous tall-tale about his family’s history in Staten Island and its waters, including the deep-sea exploits of Uncle Ed, who joined us at the reading that evening. I read a poem about a doll’s leg that had been discovered on Dead Horse Beach, and another about my coastal Connecticut Sandy adventures. (Both those poems are now published on the Underwater NY site, with links on a new page on this blog.) I also read a prose piece that I’ll share a bit later.

Gabe Brownstein read a funny & moving story about growing up near the 125th St. sewage treatment plant, improvements to which made possible my fairly-clean-water swim up the Hudson in September. Lee Ann Brown read an amazing Whitman poem about trickles and drops as well as several of her own pieces and some mermaid poems she’d collaborated on with her students. Nelly Reifler closed us out with a brilliant, dark, enticing story about a formica table, a family, and the lure of violence.