Posted on Gotpoetry here:

http://www.gotpoetry.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=50652.html#50652

Comment there at will.

Did you know you can replace the word “love” in most pop song titles or lyrics with the word “lunch” and still make it work?

My favorite so far: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes — “The Lunch I Lost”

badgary just came up with “Bizarre Lunch Triangle.” I like that too.

Dig in, me hearties…thanks to a_solitaryman for the torture…

The mind boggles. The blood boils.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.deaths/index.html

So…anyone here know about whether or not the New York Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs?

Because boy, that’ll sure be sad for a lot of people, if the New York Yankees are eliminated from the playoffs.

Yankees fans will be hugely disappointed if the New York Yankees are eliminated from the playoffs. I think what will really make them sad is the number of Red Sox fans who, in spite of their own team imploding horribly, will nonetheless take great pleasure in the idea that the New York Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs.

Pleased keep me posted, ok? I want to know whether or not the New York Yankees have been eliminated from the playofffs.

I’ve been kinda deliberately not spending a lot of time on the computer for the last few days, which has been quiet and very nice, especially while I’ve been recovering from whatever this intestinal bug’s been doing to me. Still not 100%, but probably close to 95%, so I’ll run with it.

Reminder to NYC and environs: I’ll be at Bar 13 for the louderARTS spectacular with Faro on bass on Monday night, October 9, for a feature of “Jim’s Fall” and maybe, just maybe, an added bonus poem or two…Come down and say hi.

As of right now, we’ll also be doing a show of it on Nov. 14 at Gotpoetry in Providence, something we’re hoping to record for DVD. Details to follow.

(Normally, I’d be leery of featuring in my own venue because of my concern over it being seen as an ego-thing, but John P thought it would go well, so we’re going to do it.)

In other news: Today is World Smile Day. Go do an act of kindness for someone and make them smile.

I normally don’t pay attention to such things…but Harvey Ball, the guy who invented the smiley face for a Worcester insurance company’s internal morale program back in 1962, was a heckuva nice guy and I thought I should celebrate yet another part of Worcester’s heritage of invention. We’re responsible for barbed wire, the liquid fueled rocket, the space suit, the snap-on/snap-off socket head, the modern Valentine’s Day card, the diner, and the birth control pill, among other things…

Yeah, I like the smiley face best. : )

I am so tired of arguing about the line between page and stage! I just got done sending off a reply to someone on Gotpoetry who probably didn’t deserve my ire to the level I delivered it, but so be it…

Here’s how I look at it, once and for all:

Read my stuff. Watch me on stage. Tell me where the line is in my work so I can rub it out and draw it anew.

DONE.

There comes a point where sense — logical, rational thought — can only take you so far toward truth. When you reach that point, you have to trust that the illogical leap, the irrational image, will get you close to where you want to land.

Poets dumb down their work too much. While accessibility is important to me, I recognize that sometimes the only way to write the poem that needs writing is to write it knowing that people may or may not make their way to it when they see/hear it.

We have to trust our audience more. We need to not be frightened for their misunderstanding if we don’t fill in all the gaps.

Sometimes, it’s ok to write for other poets, or for a more poetically educated audience. One of slam’s downsides is that it’s made immediate general audience appreciation the be-all and end-all of performance poetry.

If I don’t leave you puzzled sometimes, leave you scratching your head and reading and re-reading poems to eke out all the meaning you can, I’m no better than Matty Furmanek or any Hallmark Card. People shouldn’t expect art to always make sense. Sense is only one source of knowledge, and I want to mine all sources of knowledge in my poems.

ETA: I just corrected the spelling of Matty Furmanek’s name from “Furmaniuk.” I realized when I was looking at it that I spelled it the way my almost-roommate at Harvard spelled his name, which he pronounced the same way. Zygmund Furmaniuk, aka Ziggy (of course). One of the smartest guys I ever met. He hated poetry. Maybe he was onto something.