was staged at a hotel near Lake Merritt. I was not featured but was still motivated to leave the house since two of the features were people I knew and liked. The bus let me off a few blocks away and I happily strolled through a tree-lined neighborhood I always liked with its dense collection …
Mise en Poetry
'…mise en place' means far more than simply assembling all the ingredients, pots and pans, plates, and serving pieces needed for a particular period. Mise en place is also a state of mind. A couple of weeks ago, my friend met me in the city and we sat for lunch. She mentioned wanting to write …
Alternative Lives
There were several strikes against this poetry event having any audience at all. The first was it being scheduled on a Saturday afternoon at 3, when other even main event readings I've attended don't begin filling up until after sundown, irrespective of the day of the week. Second: beyond being asked by the events organizer …
Booze, Not Books
Once I finally settled upon a form for my poem idea, I spent four months working on it. Intended for/ Inspired by BlackPoetsSpeakOut, the poem emerged slow-brewed, during my weekly half hour walks to the acupuncturist for the arthritis frosting my knee. During that walk, I'd think of a line and dictate it into the …
Saul Williams
In the mid 90's Saul Williams helped change the landscape of delivering and reciting poetry. In his own defense he'd prolly cite folks I'm overlooking as equally influencial as himself, but I make the statement because I saw the change take place first hand. The first live performance of his I saw was around the …
Spook!! There it is…
In the mid 90's, after my mother died, my house was haunted. The only house I'd ever known, The only place I'd felt safe and loved. But at the time there had been a series of deaths-- not in the house, not violent, but all familial, all relatives. My father's death surprised me. And I'm …
Two Women (or An Ideal Marriage Is An Amicable Divorce)
The first woman called mid day Friday and left a voice mail. I called back an hour later, after I'd gotten out of the office. She said she had to prepare a story for a forthcoming live performance and felt stuck and needed help and could I... We arranged to meet at a bar that …
Continue reading "Two Women (or An Ideal Marriage Is An Amicable Divorce)"
After The Reading
Riding in a packed car after the reading last night, heading down to the bar, the driver said: Look at the moon. And at the end of the street, the moon appeared as if it were doing some burlesque feather dance with clouds. The woman crammed in next to me who'd been talking about her …
Before The Reading
Tonight after work, I'm heading out to Fort Mason to do a poetry feature. I'll write about it tomorrow, but you can peep poems and info for myself and the night's co-feature, Lorene Zarou Zouzounis here. The above also counts as the first time I had a poem published with typos. I've struggled a long …
Dream Alley
I promised myself to write poems based on dreams. But the one from last night was so fragmented, I'm not sure what to do with it. And my memory of it is weird: am I pulling from different dreams scattered over the last week or did everything happen last night? I pick up my dream …
The Dirty Rat 