and the packed house at Gotpoetry seemed to take to him too. A good night, overall.

I’ve got Ryler Dustin and his friend Weston sleeping in the living room right now.

Ryler will be the feature at the Gotpoetry Reading in Providence tonight and at the Cantab in Cambridge tomorrow.

If any Worcester poets are headed to the Cantab tomorrow night and would be willing to give em a ride, let me know — just looking for convenience.

I wake up thinking of Rilke and why he inspires me so:

it’s as if I am walking with him on a city street lined with impossibly beautiful mansions and I can only stand at the curb intimidated by their size and luxurious scale while he climbs the steps of each one in turn and opens the door and goes inside.

the rehearsal went far better than either of us expected.

it’s like we get each other on exactly the right level. of the 11 poems that will be in the final Jim cycle, we got 5 down pretty tight tonight, with some really nifty basslines that do more than just accompany the poems. we are getting together on thursday night for the rest, and will pull together a few more rehearsals before the 24th.

faro is also down for Oct. 9th in NYC, so Bar 13, look out…

if all goes well, we might even (GASP) record a CD prior to the show to go with the chap.

this is exciting.

Skipped my therapy appointment for today to get ready for tonight…I think this is as good as therapy, anyway.

I’m starting rehearsals tonight with a really excellent bass player named Steven Cafaro (Faro) for my September 24 feature at the Hut. We’re setting the Jim Poems to a bass backup (with improv; he’s too good to restrict to just a set melody) and and I’ll also be releasing the Jim Poems as a chapbook that night — maybe a recording too, if we feel good enough about it.

If he can make it on October 9th, we may give a repeat performance at Bar 13 in NYC if the louderArts crew is amenable to such a thing.

I want everyone who reads this, that wants to, to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want and I will answer them as honestly and completely as I can. Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this, allowing your friends (including me) to ask you anything.

(Based on time, I’ll answer only the first ten sets of questions I receive.)

Took off for the day. Left phone at home. It was an excellent feeling.

One of these hours, I’m going to kill everyone in the downstairs apartment.

(note: the Alpha Barbie refers to the stream of small, thin blonde women who are in and out of there constantly. There’s one who is a constant among the crew; we call her Alpha Barbie. Woman cusses like a storm trooper.)

I burn the flag
(my flag, your flag)
the way I light a grill
(your flag, my flag)
hoping something good comes of it
and I hope I get my fill

you burn your flag
(this flag, that flag)
the way you look at me
(what flag, our flag)
I feel my skin igniting
I wonder what you see

Chorus:
which country do you live in
is it where I make my home
is it where the churches run on time
and the buffalo sell phones
which country do you live in
how many can you name
can you shuffle them until you deal
the one to take the blame

that man burns a flag
(small flag, bright flag)
and he goes on home to bed
(red white and blue flag)
sleeps in his man’s loving arms
and travels in his head

Chorus

join hands around the flag
(dark flag, wet flag)
and wipe your tears away
(battle flag, casket flag)
lower it from the hangman’s pole
forget what you had to say

When I was a kid I was a Boy Scout.

As a Scout, I learned something called the Flag Code, which was established by Congress as guidelines for the display and treatment of the American Flag.

I’m not making this post to suggest anything like a personal shift in politics — I just want to illustrate the differences between what so many people think patriotism is and what we’ve technically codified as the “proper” way to celebrate it.

If you’re so inclined, take a look through the Code and see how many violations of this are being perpetrated by today’s “patriots:”

Flag Code of the USA

It’s another example, to me, of how there are many “myths” of what it means to be American — and how many of them are based on incomplete or incorrect information.

People forget that Mother Jones and the Wobblies are as representative of American history as Ronald Reagan and the Young Republicans.
Dissent is an American tradition. Opposition to immoral policies is as American as…well, apple pie. Organic apple pie, of course…

Thank you, Ambien and herbal supplements, for giving me a decent night’s sleep within the usually assigned parameters of when said sleep should occur.

With all the extra time this morning, I am finally downloading and printing various financial and legal documents necessary for the divorce.

It says something to me about the rightness of the situation that I am not especially tense, upset, worried, nervous, unhappy, wistful, or otherwise emotionally roiled as I do this.

In fact, my only serious emotional reaction is that the necessary websites are all too complicated to be believed. You’d think the Massachusetts Trial Court Division might take a little better look at making their site user friendly…

then again, if they did we wouldn’t need lawyers, would we?

On another note, Tornadoes’ last home game tonight. Anyone in?

Please go give a warm welcome to frequegrl, who is just joining LJ. She’s near and dear to my heart.

Welcome, Missy!

Sometimes I listen to my poetry and all I can hear is an echo. Someone wrote and spoke the poem before I did. So much for speaking my truth to power…all I do is echo the truth someone else spoke before me. I’m a parrot.

Dumb cluck bird
don’t let him anywhere near
a notebook.

Any word he says is likely stolen.
He saw the shiny and lifted it,
tucked it under his wing.

Watch your poetry —
I’ll take it and pretend
I believe in your truth.

No point in continuing this, i’m just a copyist,
the blanker the page, the better.

that I had never heard the term “fapping” as a euphemism for masturbation?