One of the country’s most published poets happens to be a part of our local community. Alan Catlin, who has been published in many, many journals, magazines, books, and websites since the 1970’s, just released his new book, “Alien Nation”‘ and will be the featured poet this month at the Third Thursday Poetry Night on February, 16.
The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center (33 Central Ave., Albany, NY)
February 16, 2012
7:00 sign up; 7:30 startFeatured Performer: Alan Catlin
$3.00 donation, suggested; more if you got it, less if you can’t.
Your Valentine, Dan Wilcox.
One of the Capital Region’s most widely published poets, Alan Catlin has a new book of poems out from March Street Press, “Alien Nation.” Copies of the book will be available for sale & for signing.
The Tenants
These barren rooms dead
poets lived in, the rooms
that stank of fish and low
tide, leaking gas and cordite;
rooms for body baggers
and touts pimping death in
a black dress sheer as crepe
and twice as toxic as the lavender
cocktails they toast each other
with once their mark has been
selected and the dirty deed done,
daily quota filled, ghost ships
dispatched from a shadowy
harbor, all the mates recruited
for that voyage that never ends;
rooms no one enters, not even
the landlord, everything prearranged
long before arrival, long after
departure; nothing ever changes,
not even the faces inside or the stains
they leave behind on the walls.
