Dark Matter

Yesterday, at the behest of anselm23, I spent the day at the Rectory School in Pomfret CT doing my thing with the students.

The morning began with an assembly of 8th and 9th graders, where I:

— performed “Jabberwocky” for the first time in years

— scared the hell out of a room fulla semi-bored kids with “Punk” (“BOOM!”)

— embarrassed the hell out of a lovestruck couple in front of the student body (heh heh heh)

— answered a bunch of questions including “Do you like soccer?”

— and last but not least…demonstrated an impromptu head to head slam with Andrew (Mr. Watt), judged by audience applause. He won.

After that, it was on to combined classes of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. I did more poems, put them through some analysis of them, talked about everything from punk (“do you like Rancid?”) to bipolar disorder to hip hop to the nature of cats.

Several of the classes had actually been assigned four of my poems on which to write brief papers. (Boy, that was interesting news…) The teacher had assigned four poems from “1 Spark:” “Cats,” Edward in the Office,” “Morning Departure,” and “Recovering a Dead Woman.”

If those of you who hear me regularly don’t recognize those titles…well, I NEVER read these poems out anymore. Having to reconnect with them on the spur of the moment was a trip. (I couldn’t even recall what “Morning Departure” was about until i opened the book and looked at it.)

I did those poems and answered questions. All in all…an excellent day.

A final cap on it…the teacher who assigned the poems showed me a couple of papers. One of them was really good. So I wrote the comments on it and signed them…I hope he is pleased.

Y’know, I could do a lot more of this.

Thanks, Andrew, for the opportunity.

i had a truly great day today with the kids at the Rectory School in Pomfret, CT, home of anselm23.

I’ll tell more about that later…

but right now, I have to tell about the sign I saw on a fundamentalist church on the way down.

It simply said:

” GOD’S FAVORITE WORD IS ‘COME’ ”

And I thought, “What a coincidence. Mine too.”

Here’s what I’m thinking of for the next Tattoo:

I’d like it in the middle of my back between the shoulder blades. The leg seems appropriate, but I’m not a fan of leg tattoos (on me).

Also: want it straight horizontal and monochrome blue/black. I think I’m gonna keep my ink to one color, just for the sake of being contrary.

Tattoo parlors in Charlotte:

http://www.local.com/results.aspx?keyword=tattoo+parlors&location=charlotte&cid=40&gclid=CIqwxamI6YICFUGqLAod4jMv4A

Fu’s Custom Tattoos is a little over half a mile from the hotel and there are a couple of others within a couple of miles, based on my limited research.

Feel free to research others…

(and I am saying it out loud as I type)

Godspeed! You Black Emperor

We return you now to your Silver Jews listening.

Thanks to John Powers, we have an anthology! A hard copy representation of gotpoetry.com for your purchase and perusal.

http://johnpowers.livejournal.com/113968.html?style=mine#cutid1

At the usual place…Alternatives Gallery, 5 So Main Street, Uxbridge MA.

7:30 – 9:30.

TONIGHT’S THEME: Possession. I will not be reading the dreadful poem on that theme I posted earlier, so it’s safe to come down.

see ya there.

let the punishment fit the crime, eh?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301967.html

Hey, NYC:

My friend Skip (drgeorge) is having a book published by Heron Clan Press, and just got this in the mail.

Pass it on, repost at will. Let’s get some folks in print.

The Heron Clan III anthology will be almost ALL NYC poets, so if you have nominees, have them send 15=20 pages of poetry to:

Doug Stuber
4404 Cedar Pass
Chapel Hill NC 27514
919.271.0727
dougstuber@aol.com

i have nowhere to go, just a bunch of phone calls to make, work on the next column and maybe get some cleaning done.

oh, and make this humble request:

if any of my hot rockstar poet friends on here can either help me score a few college gigs or give me some idea about how to go about soliciting them, i’d be much obliged. you can respond backchannel if the circumstances demand that such esoteric knowledge be only shared in private.

regards, the latest full time poet (code word for unemployed)

I’m too tired to write a poem…

But you aren’t. Write a poem using one or more of the following word pairs:

dingo logic
blacklight lips
magazine shelves
startling vacuum
forced charm

No fair splitting them up. Gotta use the pair as is, in that order.

Put ’em in your own LJ and let me know if you aren’t on my friends’ list.

I am listening (in a moment, I’m going to change it) to a show about how Native American spirituality can save the planet.

Without going into a lot of my conflicted logic as to why I hate programs like this, may i just say that once — just once — i would like someone to put together a soundtrack for one of these shows THAT DOES NOT FEATURE THE PLAINS FLUTE PLAYED IN A DEEPLY REVERENT MANNER WITH A TOUCH OF REVERB.

I play the Plains flute, I love playing the Plains flute, but I don’t wanna hear it every time someone gets on the horn and says “All my relations…”

Shit dudes…let us hear some Rez hiphop — Robbie B, whynot? — or some John Trudell. How about Joanie Shenandoah? Robbie Robertson, even? I’d even go for some Buffy St. Marie once in a while.

I hate this whole “there is a spiritual connection to the Earth that only these simple natives can teach us” thing. Not because the philosophies and cosmology are invalid — far from it — I just feel like it’s another co-optation at heart; I feel like it gives people an excuse to forget that indigenous knowledge the world over, from the Celts to the !Kung to Hawaii to the Hmong to the outback, has told the same story.

You don’t have to go exotic to find wisdom. Go ask your own ancestors to save you. It’s not rocket science, and you’re no closer to a solution just because you smudged the hybrid SUV before driving to the sweat lodge.

And God, you guys, learn to play the harmonica. You can hang a dreamcatcher off of it if you must.