Coming Up June 29th

It rained to the East. It rained to the West. North & South were wet, too, I understand.

But at Schoolhouse Green it was blessedly dry--even hints of blue sky--as Louisa Calio stepped to the mic and read quiet poetry inspired by her Italian-American experience; as Paula Uruburu (this year hail-free) brought the first Crime-of-the-20th Century to life; as Richard Vetere caused misty eyes with a tribute to his father; and as Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, the new Suffolk County Poet Laureate and our old friend, rocked the Green at her driving, edgy best.

And this week? This week the ladies take over! Anyone who was at Schoolhouse Green last year remembers Brenda Janowitz-- her funny, vivid reading was one of our highlights. She returns this year with 3 friends--and even brings her own host! Come prepared to laugh and enjoy four splendid authors!

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, directions, etc. go to http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Hosted by Debbi Honorof, the Book Columnist for Long Island Woman, on Monday June 29th, we will feature:

Brenda Janowitz

A native New Yorker, Brenda Janowitz has had a flair for all things dramatic since she played the title role in her third grade production of Really Rosie. When asked by her grandmother if the experience made her want to be an actress when she grew up, Brenda responded, “An actress? No. A writer, maybe.”

Brenda attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. After graduating from Cornell, she attended Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. Upon graduation from Hofstra, she went to work for the law firm Kaye Scholer, LLP, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property group, handling cases in the areas of trademark, anti-trust, internet, and false advertising. Brenda later left Kaye Scholer to pursue a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

Since her clerkship, Brenda has worked as a career counselor at two New York City law schools, where she published a number of articles on career related issues in publications such as the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal. She currently lives in New York with her husband and teaches creative writing at Mediabistro.

Brenda is the author of the novels JACK WITH A TWIST (Engaging your adversary and other things they don’t teach you in law school) and SCOT ON THE ROCKS (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story BASED ON A TRUE STORY. Her work has also appeared in the New York Post and Publishers Weekly.

Saralee Rosenberg

Saralee Rosenberg is the author of four comic novels from AvonBooks (HarperCollins). Her debut novel was A LITTLE HELP FROM ABOVE, followed by CLAIRE VOYANT, FATE AND MS. FORTUNE and her latest, DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD. The Detroit Free Press says, "Ms. Rosenberg seems to have invented a new genre that combines magical realism, romance and Jewish angst." She and her husband have three children and a big Long Island mortgage.

Carol Hoenig

Carol Hoenig is a fulltime freelance writer and publishing consultant. Her novel, WITHOUT GRACE, has been awarded the Silver Medal for Book of the Year 2005 by ForeWord Magazine and given First Place for Fiction by the DIY Book Festival. Jada Press and the New York Book Festival also gave her novel honorable mention. Her book THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO PLANNING BOOK EVENTS was named finalist by USA Book and Reader Views and given the Gold medal by ForeWord Magazine for Book of the Year in the category of writing. Carol’s essays, articles, book reviews and short stories appear in a wide number of publications. Carol blogs for The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-hoenig/ covering politics, culture, the publishing industry and the writing life. Carol also contributed to PUTTING YOUR PASSION INTO PRINT, written by Arielle Eckstudt & David Henry Sterry. (Workman, July 2005) Arianna Huffington invited Carol to contribute to ON BECOMING FEARLESS, (Little, Brown) released in the fall of 2006. Tory Johnson, ABC’s Good Morning America’s workplace contributor, also invited Carol to submit an essay for her New York Times Bestseller, WILL WORK FROM HOME (Penguin). Stephanie Gunning invited Carol to submit an essay on creativity for her anthology AUDACIOUS CREATIVITY. Carol’s short story, Snow Angels and Somersaults, was a finalist for the 2007 Spring/Summer Glass Woman Prize, a bi-annual prize for women prose writers. http://moondance.org/2007/winter/fiction/snow.html.

Carol is on The New York Center for Independent Publishing advisory council and writer’s conference committee and is on the advisory council for Author Solutions. She was the Director and Writer-in-Residence for Old Forge Library Adirondack Summer Writing Workshop for 2008. She is a member of the Women’s Media Group. For more information, visit www.carolhoenig.com.

Ellen Meister

Ellen Meister is the author of two novels, The Smart One (HarperCollins/Avon, 2008) and Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA (Morrow/Avon 2006), as well as numerous short stories. In addition to writing, she served as editor for an online literary magazine and now does public speaking about her books and related issues. She writes, she swears, she sings, she dances ... all from the front seat of her minivan. Ellen lives on Long Island with her husband and three children. Her third novel, The Other Life, will be published by Putnam in 2010. For more information, visit her website at ellenmeister.com.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.

The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside and are held each Monday evening in June, July and August, featuring 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, and fiction and non-fiction writers. The Summer Gazebo Readings are held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Real Estate
Herb & Marian Brown
Bonbino's Pizza
North Sea Poetry Scene
Max Wheat NC Poet Laureate Comm.
Maryanne Lehrer
Mary Jane McGrath, Attorney
Gary & Sandie Schoell
Philip Reinstein, CLU
Diversion Press
Oceanville Mason Supply
Kiwanettes of Oceanside
21st Century Appraisers
Village BookShoppe
Long Island Pulse
Westron Lite Bulb
Tower’s Funeral Home
Michael Schamroth and Family
Councilman Anthony Santino
Jay R. Myers & Co., Inc.
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro,
Municipal Credit Union
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys-at-Law

Upcoming Schedule

7/6/2009 Independence Day celebration with readings from American History & a free barbeque!

7/13/2009 Joan Cergol/Ellen Schaffer John P. Loonam Clive Young Jack Anderson

7/20/2009 Jillian Abbott Reed Farrel Coleman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Roxanne Hoffman

7/27/2009 Authors & Poets from the Long Island Writers' Guild

8/3/2009 Christina Rau Bruce Grossberg Harriet Slaughter Deborah Hauser

8/10/2009 Adriana DiGennaro Teri Coyne Frank Van Zant Joan Marg

8/17/2009 Open Read (must sign up in person at a prior evening's readings) & Betsy Transom & troupe!

8/24/2009 Barbara Hoffman Herb Siegel Christine Timm Joan Dupre

8/31/2009 Sonya Russell Yolanda Coulaz Paula Curci Theresa Rosario- Berzner

For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/
Facebook Group Page

June 22, 2009--We Beat the Rain!!

Great readings--sun even poked out a bit!

Richard Vetere, Paula Uruburu, Louisa Calio & Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan-- a wonderful evening!

Lineup for June 22, 2009

So here in the new Seattle--Long Island-- we lost out on a great reading last Monday. But the good news is we have a stellar lineup this week--and we'll be rescheduling our readers from last week later in the summer.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY.

Monday June 22nd, we will feature a truly outstanding lineup of Readers:

Richard Vetere

Richard Vetere wrote the novel The Third Miracle published by Simon & Schuster and he co-wrote the screenplay produced by Francis Ford Coppola starring Ed Harris, Anne Heche and directed by Agneiszka Holland. The movie was just screened at MOMA last winter and the novel has been translated into several languages and is Book of the Month Club in Spain and Poland. It was called "A thriller from start to finish" by Publishers Weekly. His new novel, Baroque, is being published by Brodighera Press this September. He has a dozen plays published by Dramatic Publishing including Gangster Apparel, Machiavelli and Caravaggio which recently ran in Chicago and where Mr. Vetere was a guest of the Chicago Humanities Festival and the Chicago Tribune wrote in a review "Lucid and complex dissection of such issues of religion, realism, art and romanticism...the play is fascinating." His play One Shot, One Kill was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when it ran at Primary Stages in '02. His other feature films include the cult classic Vigilante '83, The Marriage Fool (aka Love After Death) with Walter Mathau and Carol Brunette '98, The Third Miracle '99 and How to Go Out On a Date in Queens 2006. He has written for several TV series including Dellaventura on CBS and Threat Matrix on ABC. His two published books of poetry are Memories of Human Hands and A Dream of Angels. He teaches film writing at Queens College, Monticlair State, and a master screenwriting class at NYU in rotation and playwrighting at the New School. He has a master's degree from Columbia University in comparative English Literature. He's a member of Poets & Writers, Author's Guild, Dramatist Guild and WGAE. He just directed a production of Caravaggio at Manhattan Theater Source.

Paula Uruburu

An English professor at Hofstra University and the Vice Dean of the
School for University Studies, Paula Uruburu spent the last decade
researching and writing her new book, AMERICAN EVE: Evelyn Nesbit,
Stanford White, the Birth of the “It” Girl and the Crime of the Century
(from Riverhead Press.) It tells the tragic and uncannily current story
of an extraordinary young beauty who was a victim of the excesses of the
rich and consumed by the culture of celebrity in turn o th century
Manhttan.

Paula is a fan of the Gilded Age and true crime (naturally), the Gothic
and Grotesque in art, photography, and film, and also teaches courses in
women’s studies and film genres (such as horror, the western, and
science ficiton). She has consulted for A&E, PBS, the History Channel,
and the Smithsonian channel. Of Basque Irish descent, her roots are in
Brooklyn, Bilbao, County Cork and Massapequa (which Jerry Seinfeld says
its Native American for" by the mall.”) She enjoys the fact that her
last name is a palindrome and that she lives in a haunted house on the
south shore of Long Island.

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc. email: Thenorthseapoetryscene@hotmail.com

She is the Suffolk County Poet Laureate 2009 - 2011. In 2006 her poetry book: Let Me Tell You Something was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has penned 4 books: The Bitter, The Sweet, One Woman's Voice, Let Me Tell You Something and For Michael . She is working on her 5th.book, Chasing Clouds. She is the Editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology. She is endeavoring to create an archival/arts center for Long Island poetry that will be a gathering place for poets. website:http://www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com . She is the host of TNSPS’s Arts Forum TV Show on CH. 20 on Cablevision in Riverhead, N.Y. She is the Lead Poetry Jurist for the East End Arts Council.

Louisa Calio

Louisa Calio is Director of the Poets’ and Writers’ Piazza for Hofstra University’s Italian Experience. Recently honored at Columbia/Barnard College with Alice Walker, Ruth Beta Ginsberg and others, as a feminist who changed America. she is an Award Winning poet, teacher, performer, artist and traveler: 1978 Connecticut Commission of the Arts Award to individual Writers, the 1987 Women in Leadership Award for her contribution to developing arts, the Barbara Jones and Taliesin prizes for Poetry (Trinidad and Tobago), an Educational Center for the Arts grant for the Production of In the Eye of Balance her first collection of poem. Director, author and performer of multi-media productions of her writings set to dance and music by jazz composer Oliver Lake.

Founding member and first Executive Director of City Spirit Artists, Inc. (1976-1981) a non- profit organization in New Haven, Ct. originally catalyzed by a Bicentennial Grant to make arts available to the community, she worked with divergent groups of people, and joined with Yale University, Center for Theater Techniques for Gifted and Talented, Yale’s African American Center, educators and businessmen and women to make arts readily accessible while empowering artists.

Her writings have appeared internationally in anthologies: Scorched Hearts:Women on War, I Name Myself Daughter, She is Everywhere, darkmother, Italian Heart American Soul, Sister’s Singing, etc. Journals: GRADIVA,Voices in Italian Americana, STUDIA MYSTICA, SALOME, POET’S ON, Feile- Festa etc. She has traveled to East and West Africa, completing an epic poem, JOURNEY TO THE HEART WATERS which was also an Exhibition of her photos “ Passion for Africa” opened at Round Hill in Montego Bay Jamaica Jan.2007; “Art of the Word” photos and poetry then grew into “A Passion for Jamaica” which opened in March 08 at Round Hill with a Reading from her work “A Day in the Tropics”. Her photos are in the collections of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Jim Birren, publisher of Forbes Magazine.

Born in Brooklyn, NY to Rose and Joseph Calio (Fashion Executive and Cofounder of Americans of Italian descent) she attended SUNY at Albany graduating magna cum laude with Special Honors in English. She an M. Ed at Temple University, is a certified yoga instructor and has studied the arts of Meditation at The Monroe Institute, with Brugh Joy, M.D. and others to continue to develop her love of metaphysics. She lives in both Jamaica, West Indies and the USA.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.

The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside and are held each Monday evening in June, July and August, featuring 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, and fiction and non-fiction writers. The Summer Gazebo Readings are held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Real Estate
Herb & Marian Brown
Bonbino's Pizza
North Sea Poetry Scene
Max Wheat NC Poet Laureate Comm.
Maryanne Lehrer
Mary Jane McGrath, Attorney
Gary & Sandie Schoell
Philip Reinstein, CLU
Diversion Press
Oceanville Mason Supply
Kiwanettes of Oceanside
21st Century Appraisers
Village BookShoppe
Long Island Pulse
Westron Lite Bulb
Tower’s Funeral Home
Michael Schamroth and Family
Councilman Anthony Santino
Jay R. Myers & Co., Inc.
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro,
Municipal Credit Union
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys-at-Law

Upcoming Schedule

6/29/2009 Brenda Janowitz Ellen Meister Carol Hoenig Saralee Rosenberg (with Debbie Honorof hosting)

7/6/2009 Independence Day celebration with readings from American History & a free barbeque!

7/13/2009 Joan Cergol/Ellen Schaffer John P. Loonam Clive Young Jack Anderson 7/20/2009 Jillian Abbott Reed Farrel Coleman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Roxanne Hoffman

7/27/2009 Authors & Poets from the Long Island Writers' Guild

8/3/2009 Christina Rau Bruce Grossberg Harriet Slaughter Deborah Hauser

8/10/2009 Adriana DiGennaro Teri Coyne Frank Van Zant Joan Marg

8/17/2009 Open Read (must sign up in person at a prior evening's readings) & Betsy Transom & troupe!

8/24/2009 Barbara Hoffman Herb Siegel Christine Timm Joan Dupre

8/31/2009 Sonya Russell Yolanda Coulaz Paula Curci Theresa Rosario- Berzner

For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/
Facebook Group Page

(If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please just reply to this email, and we'll take you off ASAP!)

A Poem by Herb Siegel

STAY-CATIONS (The 2009 Recession)
by Herb Siegel

Gas is high, houses low, kids are idle

            friends gather, play games, BBQs are in

Stay at home, vacations are now a sin

            D.C. is out, Vegas far to peddle.

Job’s on the line, food is up, raises gone

            home is the stay-place for a better day

It’s the safest and cheapest place to stay

            from night-to-night, day-to-day, dawn-to- dawn.

Eating out is past, home-spun is the now

            Spinning tales and poems won’t cure all wishes

just smooth the way to ease most crises

            avoiding boredom that wrinkles the brow.

Home a place to sup with wines of vintage

            suck-it-up stand and toast a non-voyage! 

Herb will appear at The Gazebo on August 24, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Roxanne Hoffman

the past

by Roxanne Hoffman

a door

closed behind us

but there to reenter

unlocked by way of memories

and dreams

for some

pandora's box

filled with goblins and ghosts

for others like a treasure chest

of gold

Roxanne will be appearing at The Gazebo on July 20th.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Roberta A. McQueen

PRIORITIES
by Roberta A. McQueen

Watching the waves roll
in at high tide
the older couple clasp
hands while walking
silently along the shore

In the parking lot nearby
the younger couple
argue about who it was
that had scratched
their fancy new car

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Ghazal: One
by Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Kiss me hard and long, I think you are the one.
Kiss my hands and neck, kiss to make us one.

The rumbling of your voice draws me in, your lips, your lips!
As the honey bee seeks flowers I pray I’m not just one. 

In my heart:  A stone too large to dislodge, too big to sweep away.
Your tender touch could crush it into a tiny one.

3:00 is when I see you once again.
The ticking hours pass so slowly one by one.

I attempt to allow you in by not keep myself closed,
leaving open the door, not shutting out you, my treasured one.

Go ahead, I pray you, mold me slowly. Each touch another stoke
of the flame that will make stone and steel one.

Me damaged island unto myself, drift safely toward your healing shores.
On your island light a bonfire signaling this is the one.

I say, I like the solitary dark, but adore the brilliantly lit day.
Whisper sweetly my name, Tammy. Lie close so we may become one. 

Tammy will appear at The Gazebo on July 22, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

Lineup for June 15, 2009

This week is a very special one at the Gazebo. We welcome back our dear friends J R Turek, Tom Phelan and Florence Gatto-- all 3 proven crowd pleasers.

Our special treat is this: Max Wheat, the present Nassau County Laureate and Gayl Teller, in what will most likely be her first public reading as the new Nassau County Poet Laureate! An absolutely must-see evening!

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, directions, etc. go to http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Our line-up for Monday, June 15, 2009:

Max Wheat

We are extraordinarily pleased to host Max Wheat, named two years by his fellow poets as Nassau County Poet Laureate; this month he hands over the reins to Gayl Teller, another reader this evening.. Max is extensively published, and is beloved by the Long Island poetry community.

For his teaching and writing work Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr. received in 1980 the first Herman Melville Annual Award from the New York State Marine Education Association whose journal, "Ripples," he edited for many years. In November he was given the Art and Literary Award of the New York State Outdoor Education Association, whose former journal, "The Communicator," he co-edited. He is a teacher for Taproot Workshops, Inc., writing for people 55 and older. Spring and fall he teaches a Continuing Education course Monday nights for the Farmingdale schools, "You Can Write Poetry!"

Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. has taken his seventh and eighth grade students in the Farmingdale Public Schools on writing field trips to Long Island's salt marshes in Fire Island National Seashore and Robert Moses and Caumset State Parks. For three years he has conducted an October salt marsh (when the marsh's Spartina grasses turn golden) round-robin participatory poetry reading program at Cedarmere, Roslyn Harbor, home of the 19th Century poet, William Cullen Bryant, where he volunteers in programming. People take turns reading stanzas, particularly those of America's great 19th century work about the East Coast's salt marshes, Sidney Lanier's "Hymns of the Marshes." Wheat has learned much about salt marshes in Nassau County's Cow Meadow Preserve, five blocks from his home in Freeport, where he and his wife, Virginia, enjoy walking. The idea for the grandfather character in the poem he is reading, "Grandfather Loved the Salt Marshes," comes from Alonzo Gibbs' septuagenarian character, Orrie Shadbolt, exploring and adventuring with two teenage friends in the South Shore Long Island salt marshes in his novel, "By a Sea-Coal Fire" (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, Inc., New York - 1968). (Thanks to poetryvlog.com for this bio!) Max's website: http://www.maxwellcorydonwheatjr.com/poetry_/Home.html

Gayl Teller

Appointed as the Nassau County Poet Laureate for 2009-2011, Gayl Teller received an MA from Columbia University and another MA from Queens College, CUNY. Her poetry collections are At the Intersection of Everything You Have Ever Loved, Shorehaven, Moving Day, and One Small Kindness. Her most recent poetry book, Inside the Embrace, was selected in national competition to be published by WordTech/Cherry Grove. Director and founder of the Poetry Reading Series, under the auspices of the New York State Council on the Arts, at the Mid-Island Y JCC, in Plainview, NY, for the past fourteen years, she has been teaching in the English department of Hofstra University since 1985. Finalist for Nassau County Poet Laureate in 2007, she has conducted numerous poetry workshops and seminars and been the feature reader at many universities, poetry centers, and libraries. Her work has received the Edgar Allan Poe Prize, the Peninsula Library Poetry Prize, a National Federation of State Poetry Societies Prize, a National League of American PEN Women Prize, and The Connecticut Writer Prize; One Small Kindness was a finalist for the Blue Light Poetry Prize. Her poems are widely published and anthologized, and her review of poetry books have appeared frequently in Small Press Review.

Tom Phelan

From 063008

Tom Phelan, who was born and raised on a farm in County Laois, Ireland, is the author of the novels In the Season of the Daisies, Iscariot, Derrycloney, and The Canal Bridge. His next novel, Nailer, about a man determined to get revenge, is set against the backdrop of Ireland's abusive industrial schools and the collusion between church and state that allowed them to flourish.

To date, Tom Phelan has seen his works published in four countries and three languages. His first novel, In the Season of the Daisies, was chosen by Barnes and Noble for its Discover Great New Writers series. His most recent novel, The Canal Bridge, was praised by the Irish Independent as a "First World War masterpiece...ambitious, accomplished, and deeply moving." And Books Ireland called it "powerful and deeply affecting."

In 2008,Tom was selected as a Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellow, one of only five individuals chosen from among several hundred novelists.

J R Turek

J R (Judy) Turek has been writing since she was 5. She is in her 11th year as Moderator of the Farmingdale Creative Writing Group, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, winner of the Conklin Prize for Poetry, and awarded 1st place in The North Sea Poetry Scene 2009 Poetry Contest. Poetry awards include: Mid-Island Y JCC (1st place 2008), The North Sea Poetry Scene (2nd place 2008), Writer’s Digest 74th Annual Competition (2), Princess Ronkonkoma Productions (2004 - 2008), Towe Auto Museum, Live Poets Society, Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society, and The Huntington Historical Society. J R is the author of They Come And They Go, who strives to write a poem a day and mostly succeeds.

She is a member of Maxwell Wheat’s Nassau County Poet Laureate Committee, serving as Chairperson for the Nassau County Poet Laureate School Poetry Project, and Editor of Young Voices An Anthology of Poetry by Nassau County Students, which evolved from the contest and includes all 195 award-winning poems. In addition, she has edited and co-edited several poetry anthologies, short stories, and novels.

J R has been published in: 2009 Haiku Calendar; The Poets Art; Grassroot Reflections, Volumes 3 through 11; Long Island Sounds: 2008, 2007, 2006; Performance Poets Association Literary Reviews #8 through 12; primal sanities!; Asbestos; Free-Wheeling: Towe Auto Museum Poetry Collections, 2007 and 2006; Soul Fountain; Friends of Hempstead Plains 2007 Poetry Anthology; The Meadowlark; Long Island Quarterly; For Loving Precious Beast; The Long Islander; the East Meadow Herald; Long Island Expressions Autism Awareness; 2001: A Long Island Odyssey; and the Farmingdale Poetry Chapbook.

Her poetry will appear in: PAUMANOK: Poetry and Pictures of Long Island; Long Island Sounds 2009; Performance Poets Association Literary Review #13; The Long Islander; and Writing Outside The Lines.

She is a lifetime Long Islander who resides in East Meadow with her soul-mate husband, her dogs, and her extraordinarily extensive shoe collection. If you see the license plate MSJEVUS, follow her; chances are, she’s going to a poetry event.

Florence Gatto

From August 18, 2008

Florence is a retired NYC educator. In her new book, The Scent of Jasmine ,Vignettes from a Sicilian Heritage, Florence combines her passion for Italy and writing to document an era of transition for her immigrant family. The true life accounts written with humor, wit, and pride provide a lingering image of life as it was then and how it has evolved ."Jasmine" is in it's second printing, and is available on Amazon.com.

Her short stories and essays have been published in LI Writer's Guild anthologies, Newsday and Cucina Classica Cookbook. She writes a column for the Order Sons of Italy in America newspaper "The Golden Lion". She studied in a Fulbright program in Perugia and in Siena with a NY state Teacher's grant. Florence received the Lifetime and Diamond Leadership Awards from LIWriters Guild and L'Esperienza magazine. She now teaches memoir writing to adults.

Florence calls herself an "Italophile" and requires frequent trips to Italy to feed her psyche.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.

The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside and are held each Monday evening in June, July and August, featuring 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, and fiction and non-fiction writers. The Summer Gazebo Readings are held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Real Estate
Herb & Marian Brown
Bonbino's Pizza
North Sea Poetry Scene
Max Wheat NC Poet Laureate Comm.
Maryanne Lehrer
Mary Jane McGrath, Attorney
Gary & Sandie Schoell
Philip Reinstein, CLU
Diversion Press
Oceanville Mason Supply
Kiwanettes of Oceanside
21st Century Appraisers
Village BookShoppe
Long Island Pulse
Westron Lite Bulb
Tower’s Funeral Home
Michael Schamroth and Family
Councilman Anthony Santino
Jay R. Myers & Co., Inc.
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro,
Municipal Credit Union
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys-at-Law

Upcoming Schedule

6/22/2009 Richard Vetere Paula Uruburu Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan Louisa Calio

6/29/2009 Brenda Janowitz Ellen Meister Carol Hoenig Saralee Rosenberg (with Debbie Honorof hosting)

7/6/2009 Independence Day celebration with readings from American History & a free barbeque!

7/13/2009 Joan Cergol/Ellen Schaffer John P. Loonam Clive Young Jack Anderson 7/20/2009 Jillian Abbott Reed Farrel Coleman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Roxanne Hoffman

7/27/2009 Authors & Poets from the Long Island Writers' Guild

8/3/2009 Christina Rau Bruce Grossberg Harriet Slaughter Deborah Hauser

8/10/2009 Adriana DiGennaro Teri Coyne Frank Van Zant Joan Marg

8/17/2009 Open Read (must sign up in person at a prior evening's readings) & Betsy Transom & troupe!

8/24/2009 Barbara Hoffman Herb Siegel Christine Timm Joan Dupre

8/31/2009 Sonya Russell Yolanda Coulaz Paula Curci Theresa Rosario- Berzner

For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

a Poem by Jillian Dolan

Making Meaning of a Place I Have Yet to Find
by Jillian Dolan

speak with a soft song to my mind,
calm the anxiety
for there's always something in the way of our dreams

and time has become just another burden to bear
because there's a fine line between success and failure these days

now society is stiff like porcelain, but not nearly as perfect
we live in a world where father dies and mother cries
and we are poisoned by the worries of an everyday routine

it's cold hard stone that secures our inhibitions
and i don't want to carry that boulder on my back anymore
i want to be young like a child
i want to be free again
i want to be free

there, my shrouded thoughts subside
i awake to a translucent breeze
and where warm wind dances with the maple branches

hidden deep in the meadow small creatures whisper
and a sweet forest smell bides after sun showers
where daylight beams through the cloud covered heavens
and the single stream always has a new story to tell

heres to having a velvet embrace,
to indulge in the champagne of desire
until the fires and the stars never looked so bright

lets go back to babies soft skin, and father always there
and mother never cries
because she doesn't have to

where the wild winds and kindred spirits linger
over the vast plains of our conscience
please leave me to my dream
i wish to settle here
so time is never an issue

someday we will all awaken our wild, velvet, brilliant, champagne drenched souls
soon, i hope, we may unearth our way to this place
and we will be free again
we will be free

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Barbara Reiher-Meyers

NATURE POEM
by Barbara Reiher-Meyers

It’s poison ivy time;
get out the calamine.
It’s not my favorite vine.
See how the blisters shine.

I’m itchy and forlorn.
It grows upon my lawn
from dusk to early dawn.
How I wish it was gone.

Three very shiny leaves
each Spring are my pet peeve.
The presents I receive
just spread and will not leave.

It makes my temper rise
when blisters grow in size.
I fight it as it tries
to creep up on my thighs.

(This can be sung to the tune of “Ta Ra Ra Boom- De-Ay”, if that’s legal. If not, you can thank me for planting the tune in your head, to resound for the next few days.) 

Barbara will be appearing at The Gazebo on July 20, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!  

A Poem by Dd. Spungin

The Reunion

by Dd. Spungin

Scientists crack open a brain

Not ready for the host of memories

Spilling out all over the lab table

Not ready for the years rolling

Onto the antiseptic tile floor

Pooling, puddling, seeping into the grout

Creeping under the door, 

Out, into the hall

Running in rivulets to the stairwell

Waiting at the elevator

Cascading down the empty shaft

Dripping into the ground beneath the building

Into the fertile earth, worms and robins

Messing about, pulling the memories

Here and there,

Moving them around

Flying with bits in beaks

Making nests

Baby birds nestling, trilliing

Memories, thrilling

The world spinning

Around retrieved sights,

Sounds, scenes

Preserved in yearbooks

Whispers, dreams.

 

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Bruce Grossberg

My First Poem Written As An Adult

Drafted and Edited 

On A Bus To Tel Aviv, 1978

by Bruce Grossberg

People are funny/

About money.

Bruce will appear at The Gazebo on August 3, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Jack Anderson

In Praise of Gazebos 
by Jack Anderson

Every big city,
every county seat,
every village and hamlet
should have at least one
trim patch of green
with, at its center, 
a gazebo.

Such structures,
no matter how recent,
should always look ageless,
eternally amiable.

Here should be
band concerts,
choral singing,
poetry readings -- 
good things
to which we can give 
delighted attention

until we find we    
are now at home 
in a comfortable realm
where the best thing to say
about anything there    
is that it is nice,
really nice,
as everyone here
most assuredly is.       

Jack will be appearing at The Gazebo on July 13, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

June 8, 2009

A great evening on Schoolhouse Green! Ellen Rittberg was funny and entertaining; Richard Jeffrey Newman was poignant and heartfelt; Patricia Carragon was a treat, full of life and vigor; and our good friend Peter Dugan took it home with his signature brand of rough-edge wisdom.

Next week we have another incredibly strong lineup--more on that later in the week (Max Wheat, Gayl Teller, Tom Phelan, J R Turek and Florence Gatto!).

A Poem by Peter V. Dugan

Parochial

by Peter V. Dugan    

The faithful flock to the cathedrals,
churches and chapels, book stores,
cafes and schools, take their seats,
fill the pews, listen and recite
            "The Word . . ."

Outside on the street those starving
for faith congregate as heretics
and apostates shout out blasphemy,
"Poetry is dead!"
while true believers retort,
"There is resurrection!"

 But, everyday agnostics and atheists
pass by, deaf to the debate, rapped-up
by the incessant rhythm and rhyme
of a pop-culture sublime that blurs
the line between art and entertainment.

They are blind to the figured wheel
that rolls down the road, through
the meadow and out into the wasteland
over the decayed stone wall where
an old black hearse without gilt
or polish lies buried in the high grass
next to a red wheelbarrow.

At night, you can hear the howl
of the wind bellow and echo
through coffee shops, poetry vaults
and library basements.
Here converts, novices and deacons
still toil down in the catacombs
creating poems from old poets' bones.

Language becomes image,
The Word is among us.
            We bear witness to it here

Peter will appear at The Gazebo on June 8, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Adriana DiGennaro

We Must Cultivate Our Garden

by Adriana DiGennaro

il faut cultiver notre jardin

says the fool

in her allotted

plot of land

speaking in tongues

only some can understand.

spending time with the wrong man,

down the wrong path,

having had so much to say,

resting on laurels

so that “working in the garden”

becomes picking plants

trampling them

and throwing them

away.

Adriana will be at The Gazebo on August 10, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!

A Poem by Yolanda Coulaz

COOL, COTTON COMFORT  

by Yolanda Coulaz

I wore him like a tight pair of jeans,

and he looked damn good on me.

It was almost obscene,

that tight pair of jeans.

He didn’t fit,

and I was proud of it

and the way they’d stare

at that man I’d wear.

It was almost obscene,

that pair of jeans.

Well, I’m older today,

and I’ve got a man that fits

like a pair of sweats, heather grey,

and he looks damn good on me.

And that tight pair of jeans?

Well, I threw him away. 

Yolanda will be at The Gazebo on August 31, 2009.

The Summer Gazebo Readings feature 4 author/poets each Monday evening in June, July and August, 7 pm at Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. See the links to the right for our schedule and directions. Bring a lawn chair and come on down!
 

Lineup For June 8, 2009

An absolutely exciting and wonderful evening last Monday (though, I will admit, there was a bit of a chill--though nothing a sweatshirt couldn't handle.) Our best opening day crowd ever heard Robert Savino kick off our 3rd year with his always insightful poetry; Bart Midwood was engaging; David Axelrod was a treat, a full-bodied artist; and Masha Hamilton, reading from her upcoming novel, was simply enchanting. A great evening all around.

Our first 50/25/25 netted our winner $28 and put $28 into the Grand Prize drawing we will be pulling on our last week.

This week we have a very strong lineup-- come on down!

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, directions, etc. go to http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Monday June 8th, we will feature a truly outstanding lineup of Readers:

Patricia Carragon

Patricia's work can be found on-line and in journals: Poetz.com, Rogue Scholars, Poets Wear Prada,The Toronto Quarterly, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Clockwise Cat, Luciole Press, Eviscerator Heaven 4, Flutter, Up the Staircase, Battered Suitcase, 6S, Beatnik Cowboy, Times Square Shout Out, Kritya, Soul to Soul, Mobius Magazine, Clwn Wr, Inscribed, Live Magazine, Tamarind, Riverfront, Soul Fountain, Nomad's Choir, the Park Slope Poetry Project's "Erato,"SOS ABC NO RIO's "Stained Sheets, Poet-To-Poet's Medicinal Purposes, Asbestos and Where You Live, What Happens Next. She is the author of her first book, "Journey to the Center of My Mind" ( Rogue Scholars Press), which was showcased at Poet's House in 2007. She's in several anthologies: "The Ice Road Poems," edited by Phil Linz (Fierce Grace Press 2007), The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, South by Southeast, vol.15 #2 & #3, Evie Ivy's "Dinner with the Muse, a Green Pavilion Poetry Anthology (2009), Deborah Simpson’s anthology, Expressions (http://www.deborahsimpson.org/published-books.html), Nicky Jones’ Copeland Book’s Love Theme anthology (2009) http://www.copelandbooks.co.uk/blog/index.asp), The Spam Poetry Game designed by Cecil Touchon, the first volume of The Best of Stain (2009) and THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II (Meritage Press) http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku2.htm. In 2006, Christine Leahy from the Park Slope Reader interviewed her.
Patricia has featured at numerous venues including the Telephone Bar, the Galapagos Art Space, The Huntington Poetry Barn (Huntington, NY) The Colony Arts Center (Woodstock, NY), Robin's Bookstore (Philadelphia, PA), Poets and Angels Reading Series (East Brunswick, NJ), The Carrozini von Buhler Gallery, the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, the Cornelia Street Cafe,the Phoenix Reading Series, the Bowery Poetry Club, A Gathering of the Tribes, Bluestockings Bookstore, the Nightingale Lounge, the Moroccan Star, Stark!!! and the Back Fence.
She hosts and curates the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets, formally the Park Slope Poetry Society, at the Park Plaza Restaurant in Brooklyn Heights and at Tillies of Brooklyn in Ft. Greene and is the editor of the annual Brownstone Poets Anthology. She was one of the hosts for the SOS ABC NO RIO Sunday Open Series on the Lower East Side.

Peter V. Dugan

Peter V. Dugan was born and raised on Long Island. He is a resident of East Rockaway is a graduate of The New School

in New York City and listed in Poets and Writers. Wysteria Ltd. published his first book length collection titled Medusa’s Overbite in 2001. His new book Members Only was just published in January 2009. Peter works with the North Sea Poetry Scene in helping to showcase poetry throughout Long Island, and has hosted programs at the Oceanside Public Library, among others.

Richard Jeffrey Newman

Poet, translator, essayist and educator, Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of three volumes of poetry: The Silence Of Men (CavanKerry Press, 2006), a book of his own poems and Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan and Selections from Saadi’s Bustan (Global Scholarly Publications, 2004 & 2006 respectively), translations of two masterpieces of 13th century Iranian poetry. As well, he co-translated with Professor John Moyne the poetry in A Bird in the Garden of Angels (Mazda Publishers, 2008), a selection of work by Rumi, also from 13th century Iran. Newman’s poems and essays have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Salon.com, The American Voice, Circumference, Prairie Schooner, Another Chicago Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine and Birmingham Poetry Review. His work has been anthologized in Access Literature (Wadsworth Publishers, 2005), and the title poem from The Silence Of Men has been translated into Dutch. In addition, he has completed a verse translation of a book-length section of Shahnameh, the Persian national epic. Richard Jeffrey Newman is Literary Arts Director of Persian Arts Festival, sits on the advisory boards of The Translation Project and Jackson Heights Poetry Festival, and is listed as a speaker with the New York Council for the Humanities. He is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, where he coordinates the Creative Writing Project. His website is www.richardjnewman.com.

Ellen Pober Rittberg

Ellen Pober Rittberg is a poet playwright and former journalist. Her feature writing and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, and op-ed pages. She was a frequent contributor to the Daily News writing about social trends and family issues. Her poetry has appeared in Kansas Quarterly, Flutter, Long Island Quarterly and Wheelhouse Literary Journal. A winner of several Sigma Delta Chi/Press Club awards and a Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting's FOLIO award for Best Public Affairs Show. She was a winner of the Border's Bookstores Poetry Contest and one of the winners of the 2007 Mid Island Y JCC Poetry Reading Series Annual award Contest. Her plays have been performed off-off Broadway and at festivals.
The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.

The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside and are held each Monday evening in June, July and August, featuring 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, and fiction and non-fiction writers. The Summer Gazebo Readings are held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Real Estate
Herb & Marian Brown
Bonbino's Pizza
North Sea Poetry Scene
Max Wheat NC Poet Laureate Comm.
Maryanne Lehrer
Mary Jane McGrath, Attorney
Gary & Sandie Schoell
Philip Reinstein, CLU
Diversion Press
Oceanville Mason Supply
Kiwanettes of Oceanside
21st Century Appraisers
Village BookShoppe
Long Island Pulse
Westron Lite Bulb
Tower’s Funeral Home
Michael Schamroth and Family
Councilman Anthony Santino
Jay R. Myers & Co., Inc.
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro,
Municipal Credit Union
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys-at-Law
Upcoming Schedule
6/15/2009 Florence Gatto Tom Phelan Max Wheat Judy Turek Gayl Teller
6/22/2009 Richard Vetere Paula Uruburu Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan Louisa Calio
6/29/2009 Brenda Janowitz Ellen Meister Carol Hoenig Saralee Rosenberg (with Debbie Honorof hosting)
7/6/2009 Independence Day celebration with readings from American History & a free barbeque!
7/13/2009 Joan Cergol/Ellen Schaffer John P. Loonam Clive Young Jack Anderson 7/20/2009 Jillian Abbott Reed Farrel Coleman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Roxanne Hoffman
7/27/2009 Authors & Poets from the Long Island Writers' Guild
8/3/2009 Christina Rau Bruce Grossberg Harriet Slaughter Deborah Hauser
8/10/2009 Adriana DiGennaro Teri Coyne Frank Van Zant Joan Marg
8/17/2009 Open Read (must sign up in person at a prior evening's readings) & Betsy Transom & troupe!
8/24/2009 Barbara Hoffman Herb Siegel Christine Timm Joan Dupre
8/31/2009 Sonya Russell Yolanda Coulaz Paula Curci Theresa Rosario- Berzner For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/