April 6 : Stop Signs by Willie Perdomo

I took a class with this crazy wonderful man who did slam like I always wanted it to be done - with truth of having lived a life instead of narratives taken from the new york times and reworded to show empathy.

I started this poem
on the ride back to Heathrow
It could have been the A train to the Bronx
but the stars in the magazine
would have said the same thing
Cancer has difficult choices ahead
Aries finds romance in unlikely places

I felt like telling you that I'm not sure
how one is supposed to read the signs
unless they're falling all over you
If it was up to me I would grab
the ones that shoot across the sky
shake them hard one time
blow on them for good luck
and let them roll
But I had to catch myself before I
slipped and broke something so
I flipped it one time
If you can be with the one you love
Don't love the one you're with

In the middle of Piccadilly Circus
Eros was pointing the wrong way
Cool ass swans broke off into
schools of six and suggested taht I
leave you a note before my flight
Damn your Spanish was good, too
Hablas Espanol?
Si.
Te quiero.
Y yo te quie-roh too.

April 5 : William Sloan Coffin

I got this on the backside of a postcard - a quote by Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a clergyman and longtime peace activist - and thought this would be a perfect example of delivered poetry - arriving right in my hand!

the world is too dangerous for anything but truth
and too small for anything but love

April 4 : juba (for Renita) by Letta Neely

I read this poem as a favorite a couple of years ago at one of the bookstores in Austin. I would give $50 if this woman would print another book - she's great.


u be a gospel song some a dat old time religion where the tambourine git goin and the holy ghost sneak up inside people’s bones and everybody dancing and shoutin screamin and cryin oh jesus, oh jesus and the people start to clappin and reaching back to african rhythms pulls through the wombs of the middle passage and women’s hats start flying while they dance the dance they do gets hotter and holier and just the music has brought cause for celebration.

Yeah, u be a gospel song, girl like some a dat old back in the woods, Mississippi river kinda gospel and i feel the holy ghost when you is inside me and the tambourines keep goin and folks is stamping they feet and oh no, it’s the neighbor knocking on the door askin is we alright say we screamin oh jesus, oh jesus and i heard us but i didn’t hear cuz i was being washed in the gorgeous wetness of your pussy being baptized w/ole time religion the oldest religion there is 2 women inside the groove of each other

we come here

we come

we come here

to be

saved

April 3 :: The Torn-Up Road by Richard Siken

One of my favorite new poets, here is part 2 of the larger poem "The Torn-Up Road". Forgive me for not being true to the spacing.

I want to tell you this story without having to confess anything,
without having to say that I ran out into the street to prove something,
that he didn't love me,
that I wanted to be thrown over, possessed.
I want to tell you this story without having to be in it:
Max in the wrong clothes. Max at the party, drunk again.
Max in the kitchen, in the refrigerator light, his hands around the neck of a beer.
Tell me we're dead and I'll love you even more.
I'm surprised that I say it with feeling.
There's a thing in my stomach about this. A simple thing. The last rung.

More about Richard Siken.

April 2 : i carry your heart by e.e. cummings

one of my favorites - today in honor of my Delhi, who chipped a tooth today while in school - chipped so beautifully I was envious.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

April 1 : A List

While enjoying an infrequently slow morning by myself and with an actual breakfast I finished an incredible latte from Panera and read the local daily news. This is a poem that the paper probably would not have recognized as a poem:

Today's list
10 most commonly used
nouns in the English
language

1. time
2. person
3. year
4. way
5. day
6. thing
7. man
8. world
9. life
10. hand

from askoxford.com

Raul Salinas, cabio sile

In memory of Raul Salinas. 1934-2008