Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, February 11th, 2023 at 2pm
Woodstock Library

HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom

Alison Koffler
Dayl Wise

Poets Alison Koffler and Dayl Wise will be the featured readers, along with an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets in person and streamed via Zoom on Saturday, February 11th, 2023 at 2pm(eastern).

WPS meetings are held the 2nd Saturday (2pm) of every month.

Woodstock Library
5 Library Lane, Woodstock, NY 12498
(845) 679-2213
www.woodstock.org

*** We ask all people who wish to attend in person to self-test for Covid within 24 hours prior to the event. Self-test kits are reasonably priced and available at nearly every pharmacy. ***

The Zoom app can be downloaded here: Zoom Download Center

To attend virtually: contact phillip@woodstockpoetry.com to receive Zoom info
If attending, please indicate if you would like to be on the open mike. Thank you.

The reading will be hosted by poet Phillip X Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Features:



Alison Koffler - Alison Koffler, was the recipient of the Green Heron Poetry Award in 2011, and was the 2016 winner of the Bronx Council on the Arts’ BRIO Award for poetry, having won it as well in 1993, 2000, and 2006. Her poems are included in A Slant of Light: Contemporary Women Writers of the Hudson Valley, SUNY Press, 2013 and Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry & Prose by Bright Hill Poets and Writers, Bright Hill Press, 2017. She is inspired by the fierce beauty and complexity of the natural world. She, along with Dayl Wise, co-facilitated a writing workshop for veterans for the Hudson Valley Warrior Writers in 2022.

Behavior Chain
A behavior chain is an event in which units of behavior occur in sequences and are linked together by learned cues.
--Karen Pryor

Time to go home
and I proffer his harness.
Instead of approaching,
head low and
bushy tail swinging,
to poke his muzzle
through the loop of it,
he prances off
in the other direction.

I risk calling, Come, Cole!
wondering if he will,
but he spins and
dashes back to me,
sliding to a “sit” at my feet,
which I, in turn, reward
with heartfelt approbation
and a piece of
cut-up cocktail frank.

Of course,
the next few times,
it’s the same routine:
I call him,
he gallops off,
whirls around
and returns.

I’m ruefully aware
that I’ve reinforced
not just the recall but
the running away—a fluke
of operant conditioning—
but how do I explain
as he lopes back
to sit at attention
looking up at me,
what looks like humor
in his wild golden eyes?

-Alison Koffler

*

Dayl Wise - Dayl Wise was drafted in 1969 with service in Vietnam and Cambodia, 1970.

I came back from an unjust war and wanted to buck the stereotypes of a culture that branded me as broken. Now, weaponless, armed with only my poetry, I found a way to define myself on my own terms in the most authentic way I can.

He returned to Vietnam in 1993, 1995, and 1997 with a different mission, delivering medical supplies in the form of reconciliation. His poems have appeared in numerous publications, and he is the author of Poems and other stuff (PTP, 2004) and Basic Load (PTP, 2009). He is co-chair of the Veteran Arts Showcase and currently works as an Vet2Vet Peer Specialist in Ulster County New York. Dayl and his wife, the poet Alison Koffler, co-founded Post Traumatic Press. PostTraumaticPress.com

My Ride

I carry my Schwinn down the stairs,
out the front door onto 16th Street.
The day is sunny, bright, and clear,
surprisingly warm for a late fall day.
The plan, bike to the Park Slope Food Co-op,
work my member-labor shift and buy groceries.

Mounting my bike, I ride up 16th,
shift gears taking a left onto 7th Avenue.
Riding past the corner bodega, the laundromat,
I hear that familiar rhythmic thumping sound.
That thwup-thwup-thwup of a police chopper.
It banks left.

Wilson pops a banana yellow smoke grenade.
The smoke snakes through the high grass,
like fingers beckoning the slick in.
The rest of the team waits in the woodline.
It’s been a long four days outside the wire.

Dismounting, I crouch between two parked cars,
waiting for the chopper to leave.
Scanning my perimeter, cars pass on my right,
pedestrians walking by on the sidewalk to my left.
Some enter the 7th Avenue Diner, a place I frequent.

As the slick lands, Wilson rushes forward,
encouraging us to hurry up to board.
Once onboard we lift off and head east.
Looking down, I see an older me looking up,
crouched between two parked cars.

With the chopper noise fading, I rise up,
swing my leg over my bike and continue down 7th,
toward the Co-op pedaling toward safety.

Coasting to a stop
I scan the roof line once more for choppers,
and chain my Schwinn to the bicycle rack.

Think I will make a simple stir fry tonight.

-Dayl Wise

*

Developing WPS 2023 Schedule - February-December readings Hybrid: in-person and now at the Woodstock Library and via Zoom
All WPS Events: Events

01/January 14th - Danielle Woerner; Virginia Konchan (via Zoom only)
02/February 11th - Alison Koffler; Dayl Wise
03/March 11th - Allison Argueta; Brianna Heller
04/April 8th - Darcy Smith; Dennis Wayne Bressack
05/May 13th - Jerrice J. Baptiste; Mary K O'Melveny
06/June 10th - Irene Sipos; Perry S. Nicholas
07/July 8th - Kateri Kosek; Raphael Kosek
08/August 12th - David Messineo; TBA
09/September 9th - Barbara Ungar; Lucia Cherciu
10/October 14th - Bracha Nechama Bomze; Reagan Upshaw
11/November 18th - George Quasha; Sam Truitt 3rd Saturday
12/December 9th - Lisa St. John; TBA and Annual Business Meeting

Also, why not become a 2023 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society?

Membership is $20 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number. Or join online at: www.woodstockpoetry.com/become.html). Your membership helps pay for meeting space rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

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