Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, July 11th, 2026 at 1pm (new time)
Woodstock Library
Allen Shadow
Carol Graser
HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom
Poets Allen Shadow and Carol Graser
will be the featured readers, along with an open mike when the Woodstock
Poetry Society meets in person and streamed via Zoom (and www.facebook.com/phillip.levine/)
on Saturday, July 11th, 2026 at 2pm(eastern).
WPS meetings are now held the 2nd Saturday (1pm) of every month. New time.
Woodstock Library
10 Dixon Ave, Woodstock, NY 12498
(845)679-2213
www.woodstock.org
The Zoom app can be downloaded here: Zoom
Download Center
To attend virtually: contact phillip@woodstockpoetry.com
to receive Zoom info
If attending via Zoom, 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:
Allen Shadow - Allen Shadow's poetry has appeared widely
in journals such as Constellations, The I-70 Review, The Broadkill Review,
BoomerLitMag, and Poetry International. Praised by former U.S.
Poet Laureate Billy Collins as “engaging” and cited by Library
Journal for “startling imagery,” his work has been recognized
in numerous national and international competitions, including the Bridport,
Bedford, Neruda, Fish Publishing, and Emily Dickinson prizes. His chapbooks
include Harlem River Baby and American, I’ll Have My Way
With You.
Railroad Tracks Sway
The river a vast sea
beyond the farms
railroad tracks sway
like a woman's torso
dark endoskeleton of
ghost cement plants
stunted bleak trailers
aside Picasso junk yards
a grim watering hole
under a cut moon
I have roamed this
twisting road
nights and early
mornings before the birds
when all the air
was out of life
when all that was
left was wanting
and I could imprint
myself in the loneness
just me and the beautiful
waste that was always
a way to return home
in a mirrored box
-Allen Shadow
*
Carol Graser - Carol Graser is the author of the poetry collections
Prayer for the Sorrowful Brain (Kelsay Books, 2025) and The Wild
Twist of Their Stems (FootHills Publishing, 2007). Her work has been
published in many journals, including Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley
Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin,
Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review, and Midwest
Quarterly. In 2003, Graser initiated a monthly poetry reading series
at Saratoga Springs’ legendary Caffe Lena, which continues to gather
poets and poetry enthusiasts some 20 years later. Her dedication to this series
has fostered a strong community of poets and helped make Caffe Lena a central
hub for poetry in the area. She lives with her husband in the Adirondacks
of upstate New York, where they raised three children, countless chickens,
and a few cats. CarolGraser.com
Prayer For The Sorrowful Brain
What world have you made with your tight
dangle of parts? Let these neurons be knit
again with lanolin-soaked wool, yarn
that’s been tinged with sumac, goldenrod
onion skin, mint. Let your sparks become
diamonds, your folds become marble, your
nodules jade. Let your every bit glint
into citrine, amethyst, quartz. You are
a sculpture of jewels you conglomerate
brain, a brooch among brooches! Let
this configuration of fiber and gem be
washed in a gush of medicinal oil
Your stitches are pulsing with color
together together together
-Carol Graser
*
WPS 2026 Schedule - now in-person at the Woodstock Library and via
Zoom
All WPS Events: Events
01/January 10th - Ethan Sirotko; Janet Kaplan
02/February 14th - Tina Barry; Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller
03/March 14th - Michael Cohen; Rhonda Rosenheck note: new time 1pm0
04/April 11th - Poetry Month Special Event - "Poetry as Resistance"
05/May 9th - Marianna Boncek; Richard Parisio
06/June 13th - Judith Kerman; William Seaton
07/July 11th - Allen Shadow; Carol Graser
08/August 8th - Cheryl Rice; Leslie Gerber
09/September 12th - Philip Pardi; Wendy Kagan
10/October 10th - Darcy Smith; Raphael Moser
11/November 14th - Denise La Neve; Robyn Hager
12/December 12th - Kemp Battle; Marnie Andrews and Annual Business Meeting
Follow the WPS on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WoodstockPoetry
and why not become a 2026 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society?
Membership is a tax deductible $20 a year. (To join, send your check to the
Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Please include
your email address. Or join online at: www.woodstockpoetry.com/become.html.
Your membership helps pay for our upgraded Zoom account, post-office-box rental,
the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events.
Note that WPS is a registered 501c3 (and NYS Charity).
One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and
several of your poems appear on this website. Numerous bios, poems, and pictures
of past and present WPS members are available here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/members.html
and here: www.woodstockpoetry.com/poems.html.
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