Woodstock Poetry Society
Featured Reading and Open Mike
Saturday, August 8th, 2026 at 1pm (new time)
Woodstock Library
Cheryl Rice
Leslie Gerber
HYBRID: in-person and virtually via Zoom
Poets Cheryl Rice and Leslie Gerber 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, August 8th, 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:
Cheryl Rice - "Long Islander by birth, CHERYL A. RICE
has lived in New York’s Hudson Valley for over forty years. Her work
has been appeared in Chronogram, Home Planet News, Florida Review, Misfit
Magazine, Trailer Park Quarterly, Ragged Lion Journal, and Long Island
Quarterly, among others. RANDOM WRITING, Rice’s workshop “for
new and used poets,” has been offered for over twenty years at such
venues as the Poetry Barn in Hurley and the AIR Studio Gallery in Kingston.
She earned a BS at SUNY New Paltz, and half of an MA at the University at
Albany."
For Updates on the Poetry World of Cheryl A. Rice, go to: http://flyingmonkeyprods.blogspot.com/
Running With The Bulls
This is not a new concept for any woman
used to being out among them.
Papa watched from a balcony, waving his red beret,
sipping whiskey like orange juice at brunch,
but we who have travelled the streets of commerce,
done our 9 to 5 necessities, are never surprised.
Officially, women weren’t even allowed in Pamplona
for the race until 1974, right around the time
we could have our own bank accounts, or
purchase birth control without a note from our husbands.
I have friends who carry the shame of abortion
like a midnight tattoo in a place only
lovers and morticians will see.
I have been in exam rooms with those bulls,
disguised in white jackets, gold watches,
clipboards to record our every remark.
I’ve been advised to avoid bread and pasta at the same meal,
while nicotine stains glowed in the forks of their hooves.
They run with cigarettes dangling from a ringed mouth
while my sisters and I try to keep up,
uteruses weighing us down, flapping
vaginal lips splitting the air like the fins of a ’57 Chevy,
ovaries thumping in time like maracas in the
land of our unforgiving bodies.
-Cheryl Rice
*
Leslie Gerber - Leslie Gerber is a poet, critic, and essayist
who was born in Brooklyn in 1943. He moved to Ulster County in 1970, where
he began his classical music mail order business, Parnassus Records. It ran
for 39 years, and an offshoot, the Parnassus Records CD label, is still running.
Along the way he wrote thousands of classical music reviews and articles,
about 4 decades’ worth for the Woodstock Times, and broadcast
classical music over WDST from 1980-91. He began writing poetry in 1999 and
has since published three books and individual poems in various magazines.
His most recent book, “Losing Tara,” was a tribute to his late
wife of 33 years. He now lives quietly in Woodstock, exchanging weekly visits
with his companion Arda in Beacon.
Latvian Sprats
A small round can of tiny fish
with a transparent plastic top.
Sprats, it said in large type
but I had to search for the country: Latvia.
The fish were soft and tasty
with crunchy tails.
They came from Latvia, which has a city,
Riga, and nothing else I know
so I closed my eyes and looked hard
and saw a small girl in dirty clothes
lying awake on a cot in a dark room
shivering with hunger.
Outside the room a wild boar
paced impatiently on a threadbare rug
its eyes green fire
its jaws steaming.
I opened my eyes and saw
the girl had the face of my children.
I was about to rush to her
but she whispered,
Do not come. If you were here
you would see so many in the streets
you would shrivel into ugly dust.
Stay home and buy more fish
so that my father can have work
and give me bread.
Buy cans and leave them on the street.
When someone takes one
follow her home and give her your money.
Then the image faded
and I could not remember
where I had bought the fish.
-Leslie Gerber
*
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 1pm
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.
(click here to close this window)