(17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) & (23)

I sat at a bar listening to experimental instrumental technical music for two and a half hours, and this is what happened.

(17) Ode To A Jaywalker on Third and Indian

You're walking like you've got someplace to be
and maybe you do.
Maybe your life is just brimming with really important shit.
And that's all right,
I mean really,
it's kind of refreshing to meet a guy
who won't be bullied into treating me like I'm the boss,
just because I'm doing 30 in a thousand pounds of steel.
It's great!
I just really hope you don't get squashed,
it'd kind of be a buzzkill...
for both of us.

(18) To the Uninspiring Artists Whose Work Is On Display at the DBA

If I could gather all six of you into one room
for the pep talk of your life,
I would not know where to start...
except to say that you're not finished yet.
I would have to tell you that technique and vision
are the two dimensions of exellence,
two sides of a coin that must both be molded
if you expect your art to be worth anything
(and I don't mean monetarily).

I'd remind myself that I am not any better
(and then I'd remind myself that I'm not trying to sell my sub-par art
for upwards of three hundred dollars, either)--
and I'd think how painful it'd be to hear the same thing;
I'd flash back to the hours upon hours I spent trying to get it right,
only to have my art instructor send me back to work again...
and then I'd remember how much it grew me,
how thankful I was that he believed I could be excellent--
You could be excellent!
You're just not finished yet.

And at some point before they drift away to hate me
or make something of themselves
or both,
I'd find a way to pull aside the artist from the north wall,
whoever you are,
and I'd tell you that you're getting close,
to just push through,
that I can see you're made of bottled visions,
and your fingers just need to master the art of uncorking them.
Don't hold back.
I could've been that close, but I gave up
(we each only have one lifetime)--
you only have one lifetime,
so don't settle for almost excellent.
This is not your ultimate.
You're not finished yet.

(19) Hanging out with Hippies at the DBA

I assume that he's an honest man
because he plays the banjo.
I guess we're all a little
instrumentalist.

(20) Sensory Perception Sensitivity

It's like someone turned up the volume
on texture.
You can't even think about touching anything,
it's too revolting.
Polished pine is almost slimy-smooth,
brick walls are abrasive as sandpaper,
leather feels like smething licking you,
everything plush just wants to suffocate your skin,
wind and water both become rough rivers
     waiting to take your skin off,
          microscopic layer
               by microscopic layer.
Your clothes enclose you just like too-close walls,
at once repressing you, and yet protecting you
from everything else
...except the sweat of your hands;
why can't they stay dry?
Why does it feel like everything is crawling in on you?
And how do you make it stop
when even in your sleep your dreams are this alive?
So if it's true that we're all given amped-up bodies after death,
where the hell are you gonna go to rest from this sensation?

(21) Artwork

Tell yourself that they're just baby-dolls
Tell yourself a thousand newborn lives
     aren't left inside of plastic bags to die each day.
Was this supposed to be a statement?
If so,
well stated.

(22) Busted

Your whole world is made of balloons,
and you are a cyborg with needles for fingers.

Now, you could choose to be careful,
you could go in for damage control,
or you could choose to screw it all
and go on a deflation rampage--
take it all down with a bang!

You could reduce the world
to its smallest, most honest components,
find out if there's anything beneath all this hot air,
and then
you could rebuild it better.

(23) How The Myth Started

By the time the knight arrived,
she had already saved herself.
But she appreciated his consideration,
so they decided to say he had done it alone
(after all, it made it that much easier
to justify the fruition of their mutual attraction
to The Patriarchy).
After the wedding,
she always let him open all the pickle jars
because he liked to.
And he always let her dump the trash
and mow the lawn
because she liked to.
Neighbors who happened to pass by on these occasions felt quite sorry for her.
She appreciated their consideration.

(16) Hands

(16) Hands

These hands were made for more than this--
these hands, like anger,
created to remake the world,
and yet we mostly twirl our thumbs,
spin in our own circles,
tame our rage to mild irritation
against only that injustice
which happens to touch us.
But these hands were made for more than this.
Our anger was made to indicate humanity's worst evils,
to trace it as it moves through human systems,
and to paint, then boldly raise the banner
that could mark our way back home...
but no,
we only train our anger to make cruel cartoons
of fellow human beings who we 'just don't get along with'.
Can't we think of anything better to do
with this... rage?
Yes--
we could tear the facade from the faces
of those who masquerade as saints
while taking from the 'least of these,'
we could disassemble every idol
that has bent our human dignity...
but it's just like they say--
idle hands are Satan's favorite place to play
and so he hands us idles,
shiny things to keep us occupied,
hoping we don't notice we could crush them
in an instant,
If we'd reach our angry fingers
we could take down our worst myths--
redemption via violence,
excess as a measure of success,
humans being viewed as utilities,
we could make the world tell honest stories,
songs which sing humanity's great suffering;
we can join these hands and stand in solidarity,
but we stay separate
in resentment
that our hands cannot stretch wide enough
our anger can't reach far enough to catch a broken world alone,
so we replace relationship with emptiness,
we curl our anger on itself until it's bitterness,
bitterness like fists that only prick the skin that holds it;
bitterness like fists, it only exists as long as you hold it;
let go...
Because these hands were made for more,
and you don't have to go too far to figure out what for,
cause just two houses down from you,
there's a little kid who isn't even flinching
when his father calls him that
because he's used to it,
and so he needs you to be angry.
Two towns down the freeway
there's a man who grows food for your family
just to go home empty-handed to his own,
he needs you to be angry;
two cities over there's a girl who's being told
it was her fault for walking home alone at night,
and she is staring to believe it,
she needs you to be angry;
they need us to be angry,
cause in those times when they're too tired to raise their hands to shield their faces,
they need someone brave enough to catch the rocks that people throw at them,
to get between them and the enemy and just say 'stop',
and our fury could unbind their own,
so we can join our hands with theirs and lift them high,
so they will see that we were here,
we were living, feeling human beings,
and yes, we were angry
together.

(15) I'm not supposed to be a poet.

(15) I'm not supposed to be a poet.

Lately I've been thinking I'm not supposed to be a poet

that I am not that architect

that's welding word to word to structure bridges

that are long enough to bring the world together

I'm not qualified

to write poems I can trust not to collapse

beneath the feet of the people I've been trying to lift up

and I've been trying

convinced that I am some kind of gardener

that if I just take in the perfect seeds

then poetry would start to grow inside of me,

that it would bloom out of my mouth

and sprout out of my fingertips

and crawl out of my eyeballs,

I would come alive

so I've been eating like 12 helpings each

of granola bars and sunsets and the whole world's brokenness,

cause that's what poems are made of, right?

And I tried to fertilize these seeds

with other poets' pre-processed emotions

spent hours surfing youtube hoping it would grow me

but it didn't do a thing

because I already know how to sound poetic

I already know how to operate inside the six orthodox topics

of spoken word poetry;

it's all love and sex

and political oppression,

and the next generation,

and life as a minority,

and the nature of divinity

and... oh yeah...

POETRY.

And while we're speaking in convention,

I might as well mention that I can create

a cocktail of metaphors

perfectly mixed to mess with my audience's heads,

make them drop inhibitions they didn't even know they had,

yeah,

I know how to sound poetic

I can even craft my pace and cadence

to elevate my language into prophecy

then pause

right when you were thinking that you needed time

to process

yes, I can read this script

my only question is, who wrote it,

cause this used to be the art form of the rainbow-colored underclass

breaking expectations to join excellence with true expression

but now it's just a safe release for angsty hipsters

and Canadians

no offense if you're either

I'm just trying to be honest,

to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to

'be a poet'

if all it means is crafting poem-shaped emotions

just to make them sound acceptable/accessible

but sometimes

right when I'm trying to sleep

or when I'm thinking about people that I've only seen in dreams

or even when I'm walking down the street

poetry finds me

see, poetry's my predator

and I am just

prey

ing that I find the strength to overcome the urge to run away

as it makes me

a poem.

(14) Around April 19th It Becomes Acceptable to Write Haikus

(14) Around April 19th It Becomes Acceptable to Write Haikus

He speaks in haikus
just to see who notices
(only the clouds do).

(13) 22's a Runway

(13) 22's a Runway

I find myself
standing at the intersection
          of passion and practice
at last.
All these years of make-believe
are coming to fruition;
it's the first time I feel like
      I'm making a life I can believe in.
I'm not so naive as to think it could be easy,
but I'm trying
for a little more fight and a little less flight
-- or at least, a little less runaway
                    and a little more runway,
cause this moment is momentum,
     I've got every engine kicking in,
          and if you're brave enough to stay awhile,
I swear you're gonna get to see me fly.

(12) Easter

(12) Easter

The whole world is growing
honest
about how lovely You are.
Everything is springing into life
just like You taught them to.
The joy is getting out of hand;
now naysayers are occupying their time
trying to prevent "unlicensed resurrections"
(unsuccessfully).
The roadkill and clipped wings and broken spirits
will simply
not
stay
down.
What is it about growing old
that makes us forget
that death has long been rendered
temporary?

(11) Eclipse

(11) Eclipse

the Moon
once again finds Herself
the center of attention
just for falling into Someone Else's shadow
how lovely she bleeds in the dark
how strange to think
how much we love to be her lack of light

(10) Growth

(10) Growth

God
has upcycled all of my organs
into flower beds.

I've been swallowing seeds
and breathing spores
for years now.

It's only a matter of time
before my insides all begin to bloom
with cancer.

You tell me that I'm
(twenty-two) young for this
exquisite paranoia.

You say that God finds
old abandoned city plots
to start His gardens in.

You say I should not
make it sound
so beautiful.

I'm sorry, friend
I'd only hoped you'd stay
just long enough to watch with me.

I never meant to interrupt
your morning walk
with talk of such exotic flowers.

(8) Breakthrough and (9) Q&A

(8) Breakthrough

The poetry
doesn't have to
"make sense,"
but it must
make senses.

(9) Q&A

he said he loved her
because she smiled like a question mark
she did
well
all of us were taught
to gently bend our every curve like that
for boys with exclamation points for eyes
to answer
we were taught to be provocative,
warned that they could stand alone forever
if we didn't find a way to draw them after us,
because they would all age into
confirmed old bachelors
grand and purposed statements
while we would slowly wilt until we turned into old maids
left alone to wonder
whether our sex was just rhetorical
or simply
completely
unnoticed.

(8) The Thing With Wings

(8) The Thing with Wings

A small Northern California town slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when hopes of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Usually hopes are social,

communicating with visual signals, calls, and songs,

but human activity threatens many hopes with extinction,

and they will not be so easily clipped.

They are angry

hopes

with no thought of giving up

their ability to fly.

(7) Homecoming

(7) Homecoming

I see you in the distance,
running toward me so fast
that I think your old bones are about to collapse--
just slow down...
but no,
you are suddenly young,
putting your arms out to fly to me
like a child would.
It's a little ridiculous
how your giant smile
takes up your whole face
as you call my name
like your lungs are made out of loudspeakers
and I don't remember ever seeing anyone
with eyes so open-wide
as you see that yes, it is me,
I am home,
wearing everything I've ever been and failed to be
right on my dirty sleeves
and I'm struck by the fact
that you know everything
...except how not to love me.

Day (6) Proud

(6) Proud

Somewhere under the lens of some neglected microscope
in a broken-down community college biology laboratory
in the middle of nowhere, or at least of a state
which most Americans cannot find on a map,
the biggest amoeba feels
superior.

Days (4) and (5) of NaPoWriMo.

(4) Disconnect

Go ahead

call it ending

wash away the rotted hope of ecstasy

and just accept as tacit fact

that everyone is lovely

except 

for 

you

(5) (Wo)Man

I was almost ten years old when dominion was given to man.

My mother and my grandmother took such great pains

to clothe me and my sister

in dresses pale as Easter sunrise

so we could wait on stone steps

for man to pass out of inexistence,

for father to become something

more than letter passed through prison bars

and blue jumpsuits in waiting rooms.

We told our friends he worked away from home

but home had always been a woman's world

until then.

How strange it was to watch him re-name everything

with such divine authority.

We found ourselves smiling, yes, this is right.

But I was always unsettled--

Mother was always wonderful at covering my eyes

but when he tries,

I see right through his hands.

Day (3) elevated

just under the eaves of that library there
a certain flock of poets is congregating
to communally insist that poetry
means not talking like Real Life

meanwhile a certain flock of other poets
is throwing rocks at them

it is getting ugly
quick

meanwhile I am climbing a tree
and trying to remember what Real Life talks like

but I can't

2014 NaPoWriMo Kick-Off (Days 1 and 2)

Well, here goes something...

(1) Danger

For a Stranger in a Dream

I know it's cliche to start with the eyes,
but they scare me.
They seem to understand
better than I want them to.
I'm scared how unafraid I am to touch you.
I'm scared that I am choosing not to be safe for once,
     choosing a closeness I don't understand,
     choosing to bring myself into your gravity.
          (for you are worth falling for
               and I am drunk on the thought of the coming crash)
but choosing is the wrong word,
     dishonest.
          I have already chosen.
My reservation is a lie that I will tell myself
when it is all over.

(2) Fight Me

I need you to be angry.
You say that you love me?
Well, prove it.
Tell me everything you wish were different.
You never react;
it is only ever acting.
You are proving that you're sleeping,
pleasant-dreaming,
and we
have never had a real conversation.
Direct didn't get me any closer
     to the lion inside you
so I've been trying for passive aggression,
multiplying my lies and their sizes,
just wishing for some kick-back;
call me on my bullshit,
please.
We are in complacent crisis.
It is time to revive our inner peace
long silenced by passivity.
I need you
to fight me.