Michael Koch hosts our monthly 1st Thursday readings, with Jerry Ferraz conducting the open mic that follows.

This month, we present three featured readers, all with books published by American Poetry Systems, based in South San Francisco.

Keith Gaboury earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. His latest book is Monetized Happiness (American Poetry Systems, 2025). His other books include Still Human (Falkenberg Press, 2025), The Cosmos is Alive (Kelsay Books, 2023), and Oakland, I’m Not Dead (Pedestrian Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in such literary publications as  Poetry Quarterly, New Millennium Writings, and the San Francisco Public Library’s Poem of the Day Series. Keith is a bibliophile and a preschool teacher. He lives in Oakland, California. You can learn more at keithgaboury.com and keithgaboury.me.

David Hutchinson is a poet and artist from San Francisco, California. David uses words, letters, and sentences to make remarkable linguistic sculptures inspired equally by history and etymology. Both crystalline and personal, David’s work leads us into a place of mysterious and  irresistible delight. “Having arrived at the craft later in life, David Hutchinson feels compelled to keep on writing. Growing up in the suburbs of a town in Southern California declared the smoggiest in the country, he now enjoys considering his work wandering the milder climes of San Francisco, a respiring of a different sort. David has also authored a collection of short stories and is working on his second novel. Poetry remains more often than not.”

Daniel Farnan is a poet and artist from San Francisco, California. His poems are inventive, poignant, and mischievous. A San Francisco Art Institute alumnus with a professional background in Information Visualization and Spatial Data Analysis, he has been developing bodies of practice including stream-of-consciousness poems for over 30 years. Dealing with subjects both concrete and abstract, Daniel weaves diverse threads together into his own lyrical and inimitable style.

Bring a few poems of your own to read in the open mic, and join the American poetry system!