April 27, 2009

found poem

"we are in no way, shape, or form should a human being play god." -  george w. bush

April 26, 2009

notes on a po fest

the poetry festival is like a holiday. it involves drinking around grown ups, feeling justified in not doing homework, spending tons of money (on books), and fun visitors.

- linda gregg was phenomenal. she is as awesome as her poems are. she drew lots of flowers all over her book when she signed it. she mentioned that she was never married to jack gilbert, but talked about him in between almost every poem. dig dig dig her.

- po fest crush: the dickman twins. damn cuties, how'd you get so good at writin' poems? they had different sounds, but were equally adorable. they read one poem together about their twinhood, one of my favorite moments of the weekend.

- dorianne laux and joseph millar: let me in that marriage today.

- RITADOVE RITADOVE RITADOVE.

- anais mitchell, you're cool.

- mark doty and ck williams: this reading was amazing. i luv u poetry fest. 


PS back into walt whitman heavily don't worry.

April 21, 2009

devoured as spirit by spirit

wanna hear some poetry?

on friday at 8:15 p.m. i am reading in the slc poetry festival with poet linda gregg. she is rad. you can hear her read a poem here.
highlights include, but not limited to: "the nipples you bit and the body you possessed lie buried in you." ... dig you, linda gregg. 
anyway, if you don't come to see me & linda, at least come to see mark doty, matthew dickman, michael dickman, rita dove, jorie graham, ck williams(!!!!!), and more. 

it's free as hell and happening all weekend, so get down, and look forward to my detailed notes on the festival.



April 20, 2009

the way back by fady joudah

I know an axe and a turtle's shell.
I know the day I won

A silver watch in school
Then came home with my father

To tell my mother her mother had died.
I know the way

My mother slapped him
And let her nails

Linger. Bleeding.
He smiled to teach me:

We slap whom we love.
I know a boy and a turtle

Each time he held it, it withdrew.
And my aunt was a sea

And two borders removed.
I know the summer she spent waiting

For a visa, sitting in bed, knees
Bent to hold a book she was reading.

No one had told her
Her mother had died.

When she arrived
She smiled and kissed me.

I said nothing. She wailed and
My uncle slapped her once.

I know the sisters wanted
And the boy also wanted.

To see the body
Inside its shell.

There were shovels by the grave.
There was an axe in the garden.

April 19, 2009

the myth of heaven indicates peace and night

i hate walt whitman right now. am i allowed to say that? i just want to punch him in the face with all his cataloguing and optimism and exaggerations. i'm in the middle of a big walt project, so this is rather unfortunate.

w.s merwin had the right idea about whitman: 

"It's not a poetry that develops in a musical or intellectual sense. It doesn't move on and take a growing form- it repeats and finds more detail. That bothers me, but in particular it's his rhetorical insistence on an optimistic stance, which can be quite wonderful as a statement of momentary emotion; but as a world view and as a program for confronting existence, it bothered me when I was 18 and it bothers me now."

i don't have time for this.

April 13, 2009

would you two just do it and get it over with? i'm starving!

recently i watched two movies that totally blew my mind. the first was reality bites. i wish i understood how i've gone my entire life without seeing this movie. it feels like something i should have watched in 6th grade and then worshipped all through high school. whatever, better late than never u know.
the second movie is george washington, which i have seen before. i liked it the first time, but i had a way more intense experience with it this time around. that whole movie is like a poem to me. it's set up and presented so carefully. it's so beautiful. there's nothing extra. in the beginning of the movie there's a voice-over by one of the main characters that leads up to my favorite part:

"they used to try to find clues to all the mysteries and mistakes god had made. my friend george said that he was gonna live to be 100 years old. he said- he said that he was going to be the president of the united states.... the grown-ups in my town, they were never kids like me and my friends. they had worked in wars and built machines. it was hard for them to find their peace. don't you know how that feels? i like to go to beautiful places where there's waterfalls and empty fields. just places that are nice and calm and quiet."

on the word "waterfalls," the camera is moving, hovering, sweeping, what have you, above a train track. it works so well, the shot goes perfectly with each word. later there's a scene where a child opens a suitcase full of water and lets it pour out over a cliff. watch this movie.

movies are kind of a new thing for me. usually i'm not that into them. i realize this is sort of weird. i only like movies that are totally entertaining like jurassic park and face off, but i enjoy well-made ones from time to time, as long as they're not too obtuse, because i'll admit it, i really don't get that shit. recently i've been watching some good ones and i like it. please recommend some movies to me. good ones, not the bad ones.

when i started writing this it seemed like it had more to do with poetry, but





April 7, 2009

can i swing like tarzan in the jungle of your breathing?

cool, jeff!




will someone please animate one of my poems?

April 2, 2009

words are like a certain person: can't say what they mean, don't mean what they say

some words i've been interested in lately:

mutate
histamine
isolate
pretzel
combust
subdue
lugubrious
compote
sweat
shot
stomach
refrigerator 
indication
aboriginal
affidavit
dexterous
bacchanalia (woohoo!)
cachet
cardinal
doctored
lark
foible
indelible
muzzle



and u?

April 1, 2009

make nothing without words

happy poetry month, ya'll!