Kaleidoscopic Confluencia - belated report

Belatedly I am adding a note about the Feb 5th 2009 Confluencia reading I participated in at the Naugatuck Valley Community College Playbox Theater, - a series organized by Marianela Medrano Marra and Dr. Daisy Cocco De Fillipis. Thanks so much to both of them.

There was a jazz warmup beforehand, and the line-up of poets was really interesting. I was honored to share the stage with Drunken Boat editor Ravi Shankar, Weselyan's Kate Rushin, also with old friend activist-poet Paula Panzarella and multi-media poem-event creator Kenneth Lindquist Jr. I had a great time and am now a fan of Kate Rushin whose work I had not previously heard!

Kenneth Lindquist had a very unusual slide show and music to go with his poems. He also staged a visual performance poem by moving a box of broken bricks one by one, interacting with them, then standing on them as he read a poem. This left quite a few people scratching their heads in puzzlement.

One of Paula's poems wondered about the politics of being a poet at work, which might be fairly risky depending on where you work. Ravi Shankar made every roar with laughter over a new poem which posed the question what if Walt Whitman were a RAP Artist? It was a hilarious piece of writting indeed and well presented! I read poems from my forthcoming chapbook Tabernacle of Bees which angle around the subject of RELIGION. I was not tarred and featherd - I got mini-eclairs instead. Whew! Though, Kate Rushin cleverly made my day, replying when I was caught tongue tied when an audience member asked why I had used humor in talking about religion. She also praised Elizabeth Alexander's Praise Song for the Day, which some in the audience were eager to disscuss. I really like this poem also. The text can be found on Poet.org

Robert Ross wails at Vivo

If you get a chance, check out Robert Ross at his various locations around the area. Ross has an artful bend to the blues, duets his voice with guitar and harmonica riffs. Ross really made Vivo Bar & Grill at the Maron Hotel jump at a Friday night concert there a few weeks back. Ross also added variety with a skilled player sitting in for some tunes. The guitarist's name was Brian ( possibly a member of the Robert Ross Band). The Vivo hosts an older crowd early and a younger crowd late from the looks of it that night. The Vivo is at 42 Lake Ave East Danbury , CT 06811. There was no cover and the bar keep is friendly.

Concluencia, Feb 5, 2009, 6pm

I will be reading Thursday Feb. 5 for Confluencia at Naugatuck Valley Community College's Playbox Theatre. There are five featured poets and warm up of Jazz.  Should be a good time. Click on the poster for a larger version.

Historic Day!!!!!

Celebrate! Ring the bells! Then stay alert. Who knows what the ousted rascals will do..

Go away Mike Parnell

Stop calling. I am not investing and I don't have any dough. I am not listening to you. It's too late now. Turn off the monthly dial-a-rama and stop usurping the cell minutes on my prepaid tracfone. I'd send back your free book if you guarantee you would stop calling. Although your live sales guys are hard to get rid of on the phone, the auto dial is every bit as irritating.

Ha. I will get a different phone, service and a new number. Good-bye Mike.

We had our 1st haiku slam tonight at wednite poetry. What a fabulousevent!

Haiku night big hit
five seven five syllables
fit, end with a twist

We had our 1st haiku slam tonight at the Wednesday Night Poetry Series. Three little lines can hold so much. So many funny, clever haiku! I couldn't stop laughing and my uncle who always leaves early forgot to go home. And there were also gorgeous haiku followed by a pause then a collective gasp of surprise or awe.

Jerry Brooker and Frank Chambers came out of hiding armed with many haiku and Ernie Daruka, Sandra Mally, James Joseph Buhs, Dan DeRosa, Barb Stout and I all pulled our haiku shorts out of respective dusty notebooks or wrote a bunch of new ones for the occasion. This short form with a twist worked particularly well for James' pun-a-riffic styling. The final bout was between James and Dan. And after a close fight it was Dan who became our first haiku slam champ!

We all had an enlightening and entertaining time. Louise Sieviec surprised us by reading two traditional haiku in the original Japanese during the open myk. Jim Whiteside read a poem he wrote for Terry McLain. Barb Stout read beautiful haiku from a little book of them she had printed up quite a few years back. It was a grand and successful experiment! I suspect this will not be the last haiku night at WNPS.

Circularity 1 - more art made on an iPhone

This pic was made in an iPod app called spin art.