Lloyd Abrams

upstaged in oceanside
a breezy muggy monday
the last night of the summer readings
at the oceanside gazebo

i usually bring my dog who’s almost twelve
perhaps jimmy doesn’t relate to poetry
but he loves the attention
especially the crumb cake
… at the fourth of july barbecue
jimmy’s in doggie nirvana

there’s an open read scheduled
on this late august evening
perhaps several scheduled readers had bailed out
i sign the sheet
slot number two is free

tony calls the first four of us up
tells us to read just one short piece
herb goes first
i’m next
as i fiddle with the microphone
jimmy steps off the platform
sniffs a rose bush
lifts his legs
starts piddling
and piddles
and piddles
and piddles some more
he takes the longest pee i can remember

when he’s done
when he’s finally done
i say thank you very muchget laughter and a round of applause

only then is it my turn
to read a poem entitledold fart
Lloyd Abrams

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Herb Siegel

FIVE CARD HOLD ‘EM
 (Hurricane Sandy, October-November 2012)
Bathed in the harsh night light,
streams on green table tops,
life’s chips stacked on station,
each pile from different pots.

“Sandy” with wind and brimstone,
stripped all of house and home,
displaced people, heat, gas,
her wrath a fury unknown.

Until a snow storm came
for added misery,
on our Election Day,
and anniversary (57^th).

Joan, Jon, Steph, and Dana
shone their light on other’s pain
with tender, loving care
sheltered from snow and rain.

The storm of the century
vs. care of family, friends,
and America to
survive assuredly.

Like a five-card hold ‘em game,
everybody’s all in.
Somber, anxious players.
The pot, we shared a win.

--Herb Siegel Dedicated to Joan, Jon, Steph, and Dana Mori

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Reed Farrel Coleman

The Sad Wife

A man stares at the face of his wife in a

photograph.

A man knows her somehow.

A man stares at the face of his watch

imagining gears, sprockets, a mainspring--

Somehow even ticking.

There are no mainsprings

behind the face of his wife

nor pictures ticking.

--Reed Farrel Coleman

 

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

J R Turek

Dragonfly on The Green

enticed by versified lines

you circle circle overhead

circle to absorb metaphors

natural as an August breeze

across Schoolhouse Green

 

hovering so low, I blink

against your blue black wings

that ruffle my hair at your passage

your stanza song hovers in my ear

plays replays plays like kids at recess

I went downtown to see Mr Brown

 

but you’re here on The Green

for poetry, the reader treats us to a sonnet

as sun floats lower in the sky, tiny ribbons

of light ignite your iridescence, liquid gold

veins on wings pulse an iambic beat,

your span wider than my hand, which

I hold out as a restful refuge for you

 

but you continue to circle free form

as free verse and I imagine you taking notes

as I do, my pen in hand, your song in my head

o beautiful you, wing’ed poetry

my muse on this dusklit evening

~ J R Turek

 

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Deborah Hauser

I Wanted the Moon

She set the glass of Tang down

in front of my brother,

wiped her hands on her apron.

I wanted Tang,

wanted to fly to the moon.

She set her fists on her hips,

sighed, shook her head.

I wanted Tang.

I wanted the moon.

She made me drink daisies instead.

Deborah Hauser

http://www.pulitzerremix.com/category/a-summons-to-memphis

 

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Barbara Reiher-Meyers

The Accident

 

I wanted my Mommy to come

and soothe away this dream
this crunch and thunk of ribs
and jarring bones.

I wanted to be in shock

because they say
it takes the pain away
but, no such luck

I stood upon the brakes until

they gave an angry sigh which said
I should have taken care
I cried, “Oh, God!, oh God!, oh,God!”

And He was there.

 

Barbara Reiher-Meyers

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Our First Poem-a-Day: Richard Vetere

In Reach

 

In reach was all that once was treasured

nameless in the fear least often measured

in that place of neither death, star or earth

where a life is valued more than it's worth.

 

Despite the years much is left unlearned

harbored in twilight only to be returned

to a murky dawn etched on a lonely face:

a tarnished remnant from an old embrace.

 

from The Other Colors in a Snow Storm by Richard Vetere (Bordighera Press 2012).

Richard Vetere

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

 

2013 Sponsors

We have been blessed with a tremendous number of Sponsors this year. Our thanks, and the thanks of underprivileged kids who will be able to go to Kamp Kiwanis this summer, goes out to these generous people and businesses.

Please support them!!



All Seasons Air Conditioning

Bondi Iovino & Fusco, Attorneys-at-Law

Anthony J. Santino, TOH Sr. Councilman

The Dee’s Nursery

Herb & Marian Brown

Erica B. Fine

Kim & Todd Garrity

Home & Hearth Real Estate

Kiwanettes of Oceanside

Long Island Pulse

Mary Jane McGrath, Esq.

Maryanne & Sander Lehrer

Municipal Credit Union

Nassau Financial Federal Union

Oceanville Mason Supply

Oceanside Federation of Teachers

Fred Pomerenke

Marylee & Ed Scharfberg

Herb Siegel

Mike Sullivan, Oceanside Sanitation Commissioner

Tower's Funeral Home

Westron Lighting

June 4, 2012

June 4, 2012