Snuggled up at home writing poetry in this cozy winter weather but unsure what to do with it?
Saratoga Springs’ new Poet Laureate, Jay Rogoff, is here for you. His first initiative has him opening his doors the first Sunday of every month — starting Jan. 4 — from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for what he’s calling his Poetry Repair Café.
Simply head over to Northshire and march upstairs to talk shop with one of the kindest men in Saratoga — who just happens to also be an award-winning author of eight books, including his most recent collection of poems, Loving in Truth.
“Sometimes,” Rogoff says, “a poet just needs a second pair of eyes — or ears — to realize what kinds of changes might help improve it.”
For the name of his open doors edit party (he promises “sotte voce” privacy for anyone who wants it), he was inspired by American poet William Carlos Williams, who “called a poem ‘a small (or large) machine made of words,’” he says. “In successful poems, every element assists the smooth operation of the whole work—you don’t have missing parts or pieces left over, as you might in self-assembled furniture.”