–Tonight: Premiere of The Dirty Gerund, Ralph’s, Worcester, at 8:30.

— Tomorrow:  Mike McGee features at GotPoetry Live, Blue State Coffee, Providence, RI.  8-10.

I will be at both.

I listen to poetry with my eyes closed.  I even judge slams with my eyes closed.

I don’t watch poets, I listen to poems. 

I’d like to attend a reading where the poets read from behind a screen.  I’d like to do a feature that way, too.  At least once.

Most three minute poems would sound better as longer poems with at least ten-twenty seconds of silence built in to them.

Most poets I see at slam-influenced readings don’t understand how to use silence.

We fear silence more than anything else.  I could lose my eyesight and eventually be OK. 

But I would die if I were to lose my hearing.

I’ve said all this before.

There are 3,000+ poems in my archives, dating back to 1974.  That may be enough for one lifetime. 

A CNN Poll says that King’s vision is fulfilled, in the eyes of many.

No idea what to make of this, on any level…from sample validity to what it may say about people’s perceptions to the racial divide in the numbers…just across the board, I find it odd.  Thoughts?

mine, others, people I know, people I don’t know or knew once and don’t remember…

We all write too many poems,  with too many words, we repeat ourselves, spoonfeed our readers/audiences, are too literal, explain too much, work too hard to make sure we’re understood…

Stop.
Stop.

Just stop.

We don’t know shit and yet we keep teaching and preaching. 

STOP.