Poets Bruce Weber and Celia Watson Seupel will be featured, along with an open mike when the Woodstock Poetry Society meets at  on Saturday, March 9th at 2pm. 

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

Features:

Bruce Weber - Bruce Weber is a poet and American art historian. He is the author five books of poetry, the most recent is The Breakup of My First Marriage (Rogue Scholars Press). He has been published widely, and recently moved full time to Saugerties, where he has been focusing much of his time lecturing and writing about the historic Woodstock art colony.



The Egyptian Ring

that’s such a nice egyptian ring.
did you win it in a raffle?
did you pull it out of the sea?
did you inherit it from your grandmother?
i want to learn the mysteries of that ring.
the enigmas of that ring.
the long and short of that ring.
can you spell it out for me in hieroglyphics?
can you tie your past directly to the great pharaohs?
can you reveal your genetic link to the sun god ra?
please tell me about your place in the life and death cycle of ancient egypt;
the root your blood has traveled back to the tigris and euphrates.
show me the secret hiding places of that ring.
the button to push to discover the dark past of that ring.
the foggy destiny of that ring;
predicting apocalypse.
predicting the rising and setting of jupiter’s moons.
predicting everything becoming dust -- becoming ruin.
till all things fall.
till all things rise again.
till the cycle comes around once more.
that’s such a nice egyptian ring.

-Bruce Weber

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Celia Watson Seupel - Celia Watson Seupel is a poet and journalist living in New York City and High Falls, NY. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines and her two books of poetry, The Drum and the Melody and Night Feet were published by The Smith Press. She is also author of a memoir, Eating the Shadow, as well as two books on career choices. Her essays and articles have been published by The New York Times, cnbc.com, and in a variety of magazines and websites. She received her MFA in poetry as well as her MS in Journalism from Columbia University and taught business writing for many years at New York University.



Does a Dog Have Buddha-Nature?

My dog is so needy
I can hardly make a move without her.
She dodges my feet from bed to bath,
stares with longing as I brush my teeth, 
and only departs at the mention of actual
washing.

My dog is so needy
she trips me when I turn
too fast, sits down on the floor
before my feet, as if
to say: Don’t leave me alone.

My dog is so hungry
she eats rocks, crabapples, sticks, dirt,
and dead things, in which she also
rolls. She inhales her food
instantaneously, then expects
to share mine. She looks at me
mournfully, always wondering: 
Is that all there is?

My dog is so needy she always 
wraps herself round my back when
I sit on the couch writing poems,
pretending to be a bolster. And when
I rub her ears, and she snorts
and grunts her doggy hosannas,
she still looks sad, as if asking:
Why can’t this last forever?

My dog is so needy, when I meditate
in the morning, she sticks her nose
into my open palms, nudges my fingers,
lays paws on my shoulders, sniffing
my nostrils and licking my breath,
till at last she turns and turns
and sits down on my legs,
as finally, we pray together
to the Buddha for infinite love.

-Celia Watson Seupel