Monday the 9th:

Slamicide, XandO, Baltimore, MD.

Tuesday the 10th:
Worddancing, Newark Arts Alliance, Newark, DE

Wednesday the 11th:
The DelaWhere Slam, Wilmington DE (I gotta get more/better info on this, huh?)

Thursday the 12th:
Final show in Cambridge with Adam Stone, Duende, Iyeoka, and Marc Smith with the Jeff Robinson Trio at the Central Square YMCA.

Chapbooks/CDs are ready. We leave tomorrow as soon as the CPAP device comes home.

Also, just for fun…

Create your own visitor map!

See you somewhere out there, I hope…

An expanded “Jim’s Fall” that includes all the pieces on the CD so folks get both text and performance. Kinko’s in the AM. How wonderful for Easter.

It’ll be available for the tour, too.

Going to try and sleep a bit now. I’m starting to get a little hallucinatory.

I had forgotten, after several years of faithful CPAP use, how awful untreated sleep apnea can be.

I avoided taking any meds because I was, frankly, afraid I might not wake up if I choked in the night.

And I choked in the night. Often. All night long. I’m exhausted and feel pretty sick from lack of sleep.

The good news is that the hotel found my equipment and is shipping it.

One more night of this shit for sure, possibly one more after that if they can’t get it to me tomorrow. I will make the tour and we will be in Baltimore on Monday for the show.

Title for an episode of a Discovery Channel nature series:

“Thompson’s Gazelle: The Popcorn Shrimp Of The African Savannah”

Just opened my luggage to discover that I somehow completely spaced on packing my CPAP device when I left the hotel in Charlotte.

You know…the thing that keeps me breathing at night.

I’ve called the hotel and they can’t give me any info until the AM for a variety of absurd reasons.

If it’s found (and it had better be) then it’s going to take at least till Sunday to get it back.

I’m investigating loaners and such but it being a holiday weekend it’s going to be tough to pull off. Certainly, nothing tonight. I’ve called my doctor and the sleep center and no dice till Monday.

It’s going to be a hellacious couple of nights.

If I don’t get it back by Sunday this may affect the tour as I won’t be able to leave until I get my hands on one on Monday. FUCK.

I am eejit.

On my way home from Charlotte, 4 hours early. Yay.

Monster poem in progress. Seriously. Yay.

And for the second time in two weeks, I have accidentally brought a pocket knife (albeit a vey small one) with me in my carry on luggage. I’m amazed…thought I’d pulled it out at home but I guess I only thought I did. Last week I actually had two, one of which was significantly larger. Boo.

Think I’ll call TSA when I get home, or at least send them a nice e-mail. Since I’m already on their shit list for who knows what reason or set of reasons (ok, I suspect I know why, but that’s neither here nor there for these purposes), it probably can’t get me in any more trouble. (Famous last words, those.)

CYA..time to board. Yay!

But it does give me an opportunity to pass on the fact that my poem “Man At The Pharmacy” is up now in the current issue of the online mag “Breath and Shadow.” I found this site quite by chance and decided to submit a while back and am pleased that they saw fit to take this one; it’s close to my heart.

Read it at http://www.abilitymaine.org/breath/

And while I’m trying to get sleepy — and I can’t take anything to sleep because I’ve got to be up so FUCKING EARLY on top of all this — I am also trying to edit a mix for the Duende CD. Yup, we’re attempting to put together a full length CD for the tour — it’ll include “Jim’s Fall” but add in a few of the other pieces we’ve been working on, including some of the stuff we’ve done with Faro on nylon-string guitar.

Once we get past this CD, we’ll be working on the next batch, including (I hope) some pieces I’m writing for the project — up till now we’ve been setting existing pieces to music; it’s time to try putting new poetry to existing music. I’m finding it challenging but fun.

More later…back to the virtual mixing board…

–T

I’m in McLean, VA at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Tomorrow I run a training program in the morning, then fly home.

Sunday, I run the Sacred Fools workshop for the Ballard Street Poetry Journal.

Next week, I do this again in Charlotte.

The following week, I’m on tour with Faro through Baltimore, Delaware, and Boston.

After that, it’s off to Toronto for three days and then a show in NYC on the 19th.

At some point, I’m going to get some sleep. It’ll be fun, I think.

but anyone’s welcome to chime in:

What poetry are you reading and/or listening to right now, other than what you get here?