What joy to finally understand
that someday
we’ll have flowers growing
out of us, that
whether we become
ash or meat
it will happen one day that
we’ll all be green and happy
fodder, entering
mouths and departing through lower
intestines once
the blooms have dropped away,
and that means
we’re shit already even as we’re imagining
ourselves as future fragrance and
metaphor, even though we’re fated to be just
waste! It’s too good to be true,
we tell ourselves, that we will have such
a humble purpose.
We’ve wasted so much time and prayer
thinking we’ll be gods someday,
or hired hands of the gods, that when we finally see
that we’re individually of little value it’s as if
Jesus rose from the tomb and didn’t recognize us.
How comforting
to be at last forgotten and anonymous!
Once that’s over we can diminish ourselves,
cease fantasizing about our own
particularity as we secretly revel in knowing
that we’re just one of the innumerable warm left behinds,
ready at last to join the wide sea of
utility, to at last surrender
the folly of being so lonely, so
singular.
Category Archives: uncategorized
Shit Epiphany
substitute feature in the house for Gotpoetry Live tomorrow!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Michael Mack has had to cancel his feature with us tomorrow night. Jumping courageously in at the last minute for us is Trevor Byrne-Smith ( truthbealiar ) who’s preparing to move to New Jersey for a few months; we’ll be glad to offer him a farewell feature and offer you his words. C’mon down!
GotPoetry Live at Reflections Cafe, 8 Governor Street, Providence RI — 7:30 PM. Be there or you won’t be there.
On YouTube
My good buddy Skip Shea ( drgeorge ) has been touring and performing his one man show about being a survivor of clerical abuse for some time now. Here’s a Youtube clip of the show for your consideration; worth hearing and seeing.
observation
the dark truth we won’t admit
is that many of us
think the world would be better off
if different people were bleeding
as if putting the pig
in the apple’s mouth
would keep either
from burning
Quick note: I’m having some major problems with my phone — serious battery drain. I need to pick up a battery for it, but this will be the third one I’ve had in it and I think the problem’s with the phone itself; I follow all the charging guidelines so I know it’s not something I’m doing.
I’m only turning it on for short bursts for a couple of hours a day, so if you call and I don’t get back to you, be patient, I shall. Email is probably your best alternative till I figure this out.
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For folks in NYC and connections to same, I would love it if you could read my previous post and if you have any ideas, let me know. Help a brother out…thanks.
http://radioactiveart.livejournal.com/683702.html
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Last night was the Budweiser Shootout, the first race of the NASCAR Cup season. It was good to watch a race again. I think I finally get the excitement that some folks feel for the opening of a sports season, something I’ve never really gotten before.
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Tonight is dkeali_i‘s feature at the Q, where he’ll be releasing his new chapbook AND a CD. You should go. Dave’s become one of the most consistently interesting poets in the Worcester scene, working with stuff most of the rest of us don’t. I recommend the show, which I expect to be excellent.
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More later — I’m headed for bed for a bit (was up early, not all night, but another hour or two of sleep will do me good).
This Just In: Two New Duende Shows!!!! (Edited)
Just confirmed two dates for the future:
— May 6 at the Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, where we’ll be doing the full “Americanized” show**;
— September 7 (tentative, but pretty firm) out on Nantucket Island, in a double feature with Melissa Guillet.
More info to follow!!!
And as always, let me know if you want to bring us in…we’re open to anything. Weddings, ritual scarifications, even movie premieres. Have chops, will travel.
Storytellers tonight with badgary as the feature. Who’s in?
**A note about the BPC show: We’ll be going on in the 7:30-9:30 slot usually reserved for the Urbana Poetry Slam. The slam will have ended their season at that point, and we’ll be looking to pack the club on a night that won’t have its usual crowd. Any of y’all in NYC who can help put with ideas for promotion for that show, or who are willing to spread the word — let me know. We’re definitely looking to impress and make a showing for the work. I don’t normally make a big deal about this kind of plugging, but I’m going to bite the bullet and do it — even flyering and stuff like that. Let me know what I need to do…thanks!
Oh, this makes me…happy???
http://www.newsweek.com/id/73896
There’s an article in the print edition of Newsweek this week that explores the idea that the quest for happiness is overrated. It draws an important distinction between depression and sadness, too…but it speaks to something I’ve felt in my gut for a long time.
This online version isn’t as comprehensive, so I recommend the print version if you want the full story.
Go ahead…flame away.
Heads up — dumping Facebook
After a couple of months of using Facebook, I’ve decided it’s pretty much a timesuck and I’m going to dump it. I’ve already got a Livejournal, a Myspace, and my work at Gotpoetry.com and FB just takes up time without having much appreciable benefit.
At heart, I find I’m just not the pure social networking type, and FB — with its endless spam — is just not for me. I use the other spaces more for blogging and art and promotion; just not finding a useful purpose there.
So…adios to that, gang. I’ll be getting rid of it later tonight after a lot of folks have seen the notice I placed there.
Whirlwind days lately
Too much going on, and spending a lot of time working on stuff old and new…little time to post. The new project with Faro is taking a lot of my creative juice, hence the short poems I’m posting here are pretty much respites from that.
Tonight is Gotpoetry Live, our monthly new poem night. Read something new! C’mon down, dammit.
Last night was fun — javabill and I went out to Hampshire College and did a workshop for the gang out there. Lots of fun and good stuff emerging from everyone in the writing exercises. Cool night.
See you tonight, I trust; if not, see you around…
Cultural Analysis
Highbrow was sorely vexed
when (while riding into town
upon his tall horse) he spied
Middlebrow crouching on the roadside
waiting to fawn all over him
or bite his ankles, perhaps at
the same time.
Middlebrow, seeing only that something fast and lovely
saw the world from a different level,
just knew he wanted some of that,
was set on getting some
whether it be by wooing or attack.
Meanwhile, Lowbrow
loved both of them not. But
both of them noticed him there on the porch
with his bluff shoulders and fat lip, his eyes
sexy and dull, his ever-chewing mouth loud
with a cheap song they could believe in,
and they dreamed of catching his eye.
Drive By Posting…
Busy as hell, but thought I’d pass this along:
the new Zero Point Zero is up.
The Zero Point Zero Regular Column!
Very much more than Nothing!
GotPoetry Tonight: Poetry + Music
Faro’s coming. I’ll bring a guitar and maybe more. Bring your own instruments, too. Songs are OK tonight, too.
Please come. The holidays are over and it’s time to come back out and play.
7:30, Reflections Cafe, corner of Governor and Wickenden, Providence, RI.
Dark Matter 