Ex Tenebris Rising, 15th Alternative Spoken Word Reading at BoweryPoetry Club

I went into the New York City with poets Faith Vicinanza and Robin Sampson. Faith was on the feature roster at  Ex Tenebris Rising (Out Of Darkness Rising) The 15TH Annual (2009) Alternative New Year's Day Spoken Word / Performance Extravaganza! 2pm to midnight - 150 Performers plus Open Mike all at the Bowery Poetry Club

Robin read two poems in the open myk and I read one.  It was one (below) that I wrote while waiting for the event to start. As it turned out, I was second on the open myk or this poem might have been longer.....  Click the picture to view the video Robin shot with my camera or read the poem below:

Grassroots

Here in the rolling unscrolling cavern
of the Bowery Poetry Club
all pin-lights and iridescence
all waves and splatter.
Here in the crescent moon
art-bearing arch of everything
this chasm in black and brick
of frack and frick
and poets' word-whacked, bic-clicked madness
their voices expanding, concentric, universal

First Night, Danbury 2009

First night in Danbury was a lot of fun.- It starts and ends early so you can still party or watch the ball drop at home.  The weather was very cold and not many folks came out this year.  I took in some jazz and two ice sculptures at the library, saw My Dad's Truck and Mac Hubberman at the Palace, and the Danbury Mad Hatter's Barbershop Chorus at the Galleria.  What a great deal at $5!  And there were so many things I didn't get to - film shorts, other musical groups, magic, juggling etc etc...  and I skipped the parade and went home early...

Mar's escape from Christianity.... true story

A true story and a little known fact: Though I am a heathen mezzo these days, and an atheist/naturalist - I was once a fundamentalist evangelical Christrian for seven years, during which I actually attended a bible college for three years. In this video I tell the story of getting converted at 14 and then what made me flee the whole ideology at 21.....

http://www.youtube.com/v/Uz4BrY28J7c&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0

Tangle – a drawing, a social statement

We view everything through the veil of our own madness...

Though we are together, we are also caught up in our own stuff... which tends to block out what other people are really doing, saying, intending.

 This is a pencil drawing of mine from a few years ago and though the people are near each other, not one actually is looking at any of the others.....  Each has a different angle, and different range of sight, each is facing in a different direction...

Finding a new niche....

Okay for years you were boss.... had an office to go to, people who awaited your judgments and executed them, who held you in respect. Now you are toast, no title, no job, no house. Now what?

One of the things you have to re-invent is the way you relate to other people - and you have to find people to relate to. You cannot sit home glued to Monster.com or Craig's List or the newspaper want ads - all shrinking like a shallow puddle in the afternoon sun. You can not just churn out resumes week after week, accruing rejections like a manic unknown writer.... without beginning to crumble under the lack of interest unless you take steps to reach out in other ways.

Human connection and the esteem and comfort conveyed by it are health giving and life affirming. Feeling you have some utility is important, it's a reason to survive.

So - you need activities that bouy you... stretch your concept of you in relation to others....

First take inventory.... what hobbies have you ever had that others' seemed to appreciate? What free activities can you engage in where other people are present?

WHo do you know who might need help and encouragement? Remember though you are not in a position to offer financial help, anyone can encourage someone else.... anyone can offer a kind word and a listening ear... etc etc

Who are you? Self-definition amid turbulent circumstance

How we define our selves to our selves - this question and this question alone lies at the heart of surviving changes brought on by job loss, foreclosure and turbulent circumstance.

Up to this point you have made meaning in your life with a certain set of thoughts, with a certain focus. But when you lose your job and your home - in a chaotic economy - that focus has to change.

When you lose your job, your home, you also lose contact with colleagues and associates that were bound up in those locations. Your respected place in the scheme of things, in your career, and as a bread-winner and homeowner disappear all in one shot. If these past things are gone - and if they never return - "who am I now?"

To survive, long-answered questions need to be revisited; long-held assumptions need to be re-examined.

Are you really only worth the support your provided to family, the income you generated for your company? Are you more than external titles and an inventory of purchased goods? Are you worth something, as a simple unemployed, foreclosed upon individual? Do you have value as one unique human character in a world cast of billions?

In other words do human beings have any intrinsic worth? If they do, then you do. Can a human being (you) have worth based on what is inside them rather than on what external titles and goods they posses? Certainly we do...

Simple math -> NO JOB = NO NEW CAR

What drug is clouding the alleged vision of Washington and the Big Three car makers?

Throwing money at the carmakers will not work. PERIOD. Do the math - it's simple math:

NO JOB = NO NEW CAR 

Americans have stopped buying new cars not because of a lack of credit - but because of actual or impending unemployment.....