ALTAMONT — Alan Casline is a poet; he thinks in metaphors.

He likens poets reading at the Altamont Fair to a hummingbird — “aerodynamically and scientifically proven to be unable to fly but no one told the humming bird.”

He asks, “How many county fairs feature poetry?  How many do so for 29 straight years?”

Betty Spadaro, a one-time teacher at the Bozenkill Schoolhouse who served as its superintendent once it was moved to the fairgrounds, started the poetry reading sessions.

She got the idea from the English custom of speakers in the underground train stations. “I thought, it’s noisy at the fair, too...Why couldn’t we have poetry?” she asked.

Spadaro reported that volunteers have read everything from psalms in the Bible to nursery rhymes. “And Robert Frost is always popular,” she said. Sometimes, the farm machinery had to be quieted for a bit so that the poetry could be heard.

Casline is in charge of the fair poetry this year, a job he took on four years ago, because he “didn't want something that had gone on for so long to end.” The poets who will read on Aug. 12, in addition to Casline, include: Stephen Lewandowski, Dan Wilcox, Bob Sharkey, Mark W. O'Brien, Robb Smith, Julie Lomoe, Tom Corrado, Tim Lake, Steven Minchin, Brian Dorn, and Joe Krausman.

They will read Wednesday at 2 p.m. from the stage of the Carriage Museum.

Casline has long loved local history and culture.  He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in history in 1973, the year he founded the Rootdrinker Institute, which he describes as “a small cultural arts organization.” It publishes a journal that he edits, which embraces a “back-to-the-land” philosophy.

He got the name for his institute from Jack Kerouac’s “The Scripture of the Golden Eternity.” Casline quotes the passage from memory: “‘That looks like a tree, let’s call it a tree,’ said Coyote to Earthmaker at the beginning, and they walked around the rootdrinker patting their bellies.”

“‘The Scripture of the Golden Eternity’ was Jack Kerouac’s take on Buddism...Rootdrinker is another word for tree,” said Casline, explaining that he likes the idea of unlimited names for a familiar thing, like a tree.

Casline has now retired from his career counseling at-risk kids, developing adventure-based programs that took them hiking and rock-climbing.

“Paperwork drove me out of the field,” he said and he is now “living the unlived life,” devoting himself to the Rootdrinker Institute, based in his Delmar home.

He gathers the poets for the Altamont Fair event through emailed invitations. “Poets are pretty well organized in this area; there are a number of calendars and lists,” he said. Casline welcomes any poet who wants to participate. He’d prefer poets contact him ahead of the Aug. 12 fair event, at [email protected], but, if someone shows up and wants to read, that’s all right, too.

^{Alan Casline has organized the poetry reading at the Altamont Fair for the last four years because he wanted to keep the tradition alive. — Photo by Will Nixon}

What do fair-goers get from the poets?

“It’s up to them as listeners,” said Casline. “For a lot, especially the young ones, it’s an early exposure to poetry.”

The poets who are reading their works are accomplished, he said. Each will read for about 10 to 15 minutes.

“I tell the poets who come to read at the fair that, as with most poetry readings, it’s poets coming to hear other poets. That’s what you normally get,” said Casline. “The fair does attract curiosity seekers. People walking by get slower and slower and some of them stop — and listen. Some people who work at the fair come to listen, too.”

Casline will be reading from his recently published book of poems, “Sixty-four Changes.” The “I Ching” or “Book of Changes,” an ancient Chinese fortune-telling book has 64 hexagrams, he explains. Casline describes the “I Ching” as “a book of rural philosophy that Confucius studied.”  Casline’s poems are “a re-telling of the hexagrams.”

“The yin and yang is the ‘I Ching,’” Casline says, referring to opposing forces that are actually complementary. “I was using it as a book to find my fortune,” said Casline. “I started writing these additions inspired by poems to go with it as they appear through the process of finding by chance. I wrote the first one in 1978.”

His book, more than three decades in the making, came in spurts. “There were years when I didn’t consult the book,” he said of the “I Ching.” “Then, there would be three or four times in a month.”

Legends of Local Poetry

Most of the poets will read from original works. There is also a tradition of honoring dead poets in a portion of the program called “Legends of Local Poetry Round-Robin,” which will start at 3:30 p.m.

Poets to be honored in this portion include W.W. Christman, the Helderberg farmer, whose son, Lansing Christman, a poet in his own right, was editor of The Altamont Enterprise during the Great Depression; Art Willis, a long-time Voorheesville teacher; and Magdalene Merritt.

A late-19^th-Century writer, Merritt, “was an Altamont-based female poet whose stuff was largely commercial,” said Casline. “It was the heyday of the Helderbergs as a vacation spot and she wrote for the tourists.”

The works of several late contemporary poets will also be read.

“Jim Williams and Catherine Connolly used to join us every Wednesday at Smitty’s Tavern for the poets’ roundtable,” said Casline. Tom Natell of Albany will also be honored. “He died fairly young,” said Casline. Dan Wilcox, Charlie Rossiter, and he did the “3 Guys From Albany,” “traveling to different Albanys around the country, reading poetry,” he said.

The most recent to join the ranks of remembered poets is William Robert Foltin who for years helped coordinate the fair poetry readings. He died on July 6.

“Bob was a character. He did things his own way,” said Casline. “He was a retired GE engineer but, when you looked at him, you thought you were seeing a homeless man. His clothes were kind of raggy; he was known for that.”

Casline went on, “He had a real enthusiasm for poetry and other poets.”

Casline wrote in an email to the other poets who will be reading at the fair, “Looks like Robert Foltin moves from the open mic stage to the subject of our Legends of Poetry Round-Table. He joins too many other amazing poets and friends.”

Casline plans to honor Foltin by reading his verse at the fair. “Can't buy him a drink this year,” he wrote, “can only lift a glass in memory of.”