Artful Dodgers Poetry

12/30/2024

Video of Artful Dodgers Poetry’s 12/29/24 5 NYC Mafia Families’ Let’s Whack 2024 Open Mic

10/27/2024

Artful Dodgers Poetry's Let's Hobnob With Goblins 10/27/2024 Open Mic

10/18/2024

First, Second, and Fourth Prizes in the 2024 Writer’s Digest Non-Rhyming Poetry Contest, with a fourth poem given an Honorable Mention, barely missing a sweep of the awards. Like those little gold stars Mrs. Hamburger, my fourth grade teacher, used to hand out for art projects such as creating an African village out of clay. Although no cash awards came my way as the result of my elementary school efforts, just satisfaction for a job well done while scraping clay from under my fingernails.

10/07/2024

Despite some technical difficulties with Zoom, Artful Dodgers Poets still managed to pick a pocket or two. When the pawnshop opens we should have enough to secure our next breakfast.

09/24/2024

Just when you think you can't shake those Game of Thrones' Winter Is Coming blues, that negativity has you by the short hairs with you having recently discovered that your university diploma was printed with disappearing ink, requiring that you take all those courses again if you wish to maintain the integrity of your curriculum vitae, along comes ARTFUL DODGERS POETRY, now in our 7th year of soul searching and saving, riding to the rescue with our next generous, this time entirely virtual open mic, on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH, at 2:30 p.m. (New York time). We’ll add a little mellow yellow to your blues to color your outlook evergreen. Please register through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artful-dodgers-poetry-invites-you-to-pucker-up-for-a-true-loves-kiss-tickets-1026422195417 or directly through Zoom at
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sduqsrz4tH9F12Qm73n6keipvsZWngNJ5
to restore both your confidence and your academic standing. A few spoken words, yours and ours, and voila!, the disappeared ink reappears, a second coming you can count on. Oh, frabjous joy! So bring your best poems and your mortarboard to toss in the air as we cobble together a graduation ceremony. Hieronymus Bosch, should he join us posthumously, has promised to keep his Last Judgments to himself.

08/27/2024

Dear Ann Drysdale, a poet whose wit and warmth never failed to bring a smile to my face, recently passed away (to where is a fair question I won’t even attempt to answer: I keep glancing upwards and don’t see any Golden River with a Far Shore, else I’d have made a reservation). To commemorate Ann and her work, I’ll be hosting a Zoom reading of her poems on Sunday, September 1st, at 2 p.m. (New York time). If you are familiar with Ann and have access to her work, we may still have a few spots open for readers: a couple of not too long poems each, time permitting. If you’re interested in reading with us, Ann’s work only unlike our usual Artful Dodgers Poetry format, please message me. I’ll try to get back to you after my Rice Krispies breakfast cereal stops snapping, crackling, and popping. And feel free to send a kind thought Ann’s way or to purchase one of her books on eBay or wherever else you may find it.

08/24/2024

Writer’s Digest recently informed me that (under my nom de guerre, Redd Ryder) I had won First, Second, and Fourth Prizes in their 2024 Non-Rhyming Poetry contest out of close to 3,600 submissions, with a fourth poem of mine being awarded an Honorable Mention. WD, forget everything I ever said about your not sending me the promised check when I won a First a few years back, I’ll chalk it off to the squeeze the pandemic put on how we conducted business. So here’s the deal, WD: one more First and.you should consider erecting a statue of me in your hometown of Boulder, Colorado, where I once spent a year. Or placing a Caesarean bust of my criminally profiled face in the window of that Mexican joint where I spent two days scraping guacamole off diners’ plates.

08/05/2024

Click on the following to be taken to a YouTube video of Artful Dodgers Poetry’s August 3, 2024, in-person and virtual (HYBRID) open mic reading. Cool off with a slice of Baked Alaska and enjoy:

Harvey Soss's "Artful Dodger" brings forth a Hybrid Poetic Event Assisted by the Charming and talented Mona Zamfirescu, joined by poets local and across the ...

07/31/2024

IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT TO PARIS, ARTFUL DODGERS POETRY’S SATURDAY, AUGUST 3RD, IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL (HYBRID) OPEN MIC IS THE NEXT BEST THING

FOR IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE: If you know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who has access to a Star Trek teleportation device, step aboard to cool off with Artful Dodgers Poetry at our upcoming in-person and virtual (HYBRID) open mic poetry event this Saturday, August 3rd, from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. EDT. Likewise, we’re easily accessible by public transportation from anywhere in the Greater New York Metropolitan area. Join us in person at the spacious new Brooklyn Heights Public Library located at 286 Cadman Plaza W. (Court Street between Clinton and Pierpont Streets) in Brooklyn, New York. It’s only a short walk from the 2, 3, 4, 5, and R subway train stops at Boro Hall, the 2 or 3 at Clark Street, or the F, A, and C stops at Jay Street. If coming via the Long Island Railroad, you can make a connection to the 2, 3, 4, 5, and RR trains at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center. Or let the hot air generated by the upcoming election in the U.S. carry you to us on a parasail.

OR JOIN US VIRTUALLY. If teleportation and parasailing are not your thing, or if you’re otherwise unable to grace us with your physical presence, you can still position a comfy chair in front of your air conditioner, it being cool in this heat to join us virtually. Please register through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artful-dodgers-poetry-invites-you-to-our-august-3rd-hybrid-open-mic-event-tickets-954360276277
or directly through Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMoceqopjsvGtbyVEP5fd-RUNHH2zLzEEup Should you require additional information or directions, please contact us at [email protected] or at [email protected].

07/16/2024

It’s ninety-four degrees today in Brooklyn, New York. Global warming? A better explanation might be that when the Devil is running for President he can be expected to bring some heat with him.

07/10/2024

ARTFUL DODGERS POETRY is pleased to invite you to our sponsored reading at this year's New York Poetry Festival on Governors Island. Our three readers as noted below (I wish we were given enough time to include more, our entry having been made at the last minute) will be reading THIS SATURDAY, JULY 13TH, AT 4:30 P.M. ON THE BECKETT STAGE. If you're not a strong swimmer, ferry service is available from both the ferry dock at lower Manhattan and from I believe it's pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights, towards the southern end of Brooklyn Bridge Park where it meets Atlantic Avenue. Ferry schedules are available online, and I believe the ferry is free until 11 a.m. (and is otherwise not very expensive). The festival usually has some chairs available, but it can't hurt to bring a folding chair of your own to be sure of securing seating. A thermos of martinis, anyone? Stroll through the park area of Governors Island, picnic, sample the food stands, and at 4:30 come share the next half hour or so with us. A lovely and enlightening way to spend an afternoon. For any additional information or directions, please contact Harvey at [email protected]. For those of you who aren't in the Greater Metropolitan New York area, there's still time to book your airfare. And, of course, you're always welcome to join us in spirit. As doubtless the ghost of Beckett will. Hope you can drop by.

OUR READERS:

HARVEY SOSS won Writer's Digest Writing Competition poetry prize awards in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022, and in 2019 he was awarded a First Prize in Non-rhyming Poetry. His poems have been finalists for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and have been accepted for publication by the University of Canberra's Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize, New Millennium, Shabda Press’ “Nuclear Impact” anthology, spoKe, and elsewhere here and abroad. In 2016 Harvey abandoned his law practice to write full-time. He has since founded and continues to host the monthly Artful Dodgers Poetry Series to showcase deserving work to an international audience. He also writes under his nom de guerre, Redd Ryder.

LINDA MORALES CABALLERO is an award-winning author, journalist, and educator. She has authored seven poetry books and one of prose, El libro de los enigmas. Stories from this book have been adapted to produce an awarded short film, a play, and monologues that have been represented in New York and Madrid. Her work has been published in multiple languages. Her book, El rumor de las cosas was awarded the International Latino Book Awards as one of the three best poetry books of 2020. Additionally, she has been one of the two finalists to the Ernest M. Hemingway 2021 Award in recognition of her fructiferous literary career.

MONA ZAMFIRESCU is a Professor of Mathematics, she has been teaching at Baruch College, CUNY since 2003. Although Mona has pursued a career as a mathematician, at heart she is an artist who delights in poetry, photography, painting, graphic art, baking, and crafts of all kinds. Mona will begin an MFA program in Creative Writing/Poetry in the Fall 2024, CCNY.

06/13/2024

If you haven't already done so, Artful Dodgers Poetry once more invites you to register to join us this upcoming Saturday, June 15th, at 2:30 p.m. (New York time) to provide the fertilization for our 7th year anniversary JUNE IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER VIRTUAL OPEN MIC. As usual, we'll have two rounds of reading, time and stamina permitting. A happy marriage of flora and fauna. Please register through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/.../invitation-to-artful...
or directly through Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZwpcOGsrzIiGtaXooeGaA74j8QdE... . Take a bit of time from your summer reading (if it's "Valley of the Dolls," we operate on a don't ask, don't tell basis so as not to cause embarrassment) to share your poetry and ours while the tide curls around your toes. Whether you're Down Under or bound for the International Space Station, so long as you have access to the ouroboros of the Internet we're only a click away. Come bust out with us, no jailbreak contemplated or intended unless you're imprisoned in that same old, same old What shall I do this Saturday? ennui.

06/07/2024

This June marks Artful Dodgers Poetry's seventh year of sharing poetry with you. We have done our best not to make those seven years feel like dog years, and I trust we have been successful. No townsfolk brandishing flaming torches have come running after us, at least not recently, shouting, "Kill the Poetry Monster before it spreads!" It's far too late for that, as we've managed to spread the bountiful impact of the finest poetry and poets and will continue to do so. And we invite you to swell our numbers at our next monthly event, a VIRTUAL OPEN MIC ON SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH, AT 2:30 P.M. (New York time) when we will once more pay homage to our tricksy Muse, joyfully raising our voices as Dr. Frankenstein is said to have done, "It lives!" Believe me when I say that a restaging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical “Oklahoma” won't be the only place where June will be "busting out all over." Certainly not if you add your voice to ours and join us on our virtual surrey where we'll save a seat for you. To do so, please register through Eventbriteat https://www.eventbrite.com/e/invitation-to-artful-dodgers-poetrys-june-is-busting-out-all-over-open-mic-tickets-921072110477
or directly through Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpcOGsrzIiGtaXooeGaA74j8QdE04NSiRy . And don't let corn as high as an elephant's eye (there's that “Oklahoma" again) keep you from us.

05/16/2024

If you haven't already done so, you're invited to join Artful Dodgers Poetry at our upcoming Come Bloom With Us virtual open mic on Saturday, May 18th at 2:30 p.m. (New York time). Notwithstanding that the Botanic Garden's Cherry Blossom Festival is over and its cherry trees are bare, come share the freshness of your poems and ours. Kimonos and samurai swords optional. Register through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/.../artful-dodgers-poetrys...
or directly through Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZwscOiuqD0qE9B46YWgBxw86kNqZ.... As always, we look forward to seeing and hearing you.

04/09/2024

Audio only recording of Artful Dodgers Poetry's April 6th, 2024, We're No April Fools Open Mic (video failed to record).

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/3Nort18C5o5lNBWGZ5fe4NDgnVypEUsSkYgDol7QmYMyONeEdFn1F6ttcp5LtAen.LsKFGNLbZClC0N4H?startTime=1712428007000