Wednesday April 27th, 2005 - 4:54AM
So the pattern seems to be now that after class on a Tuesday night, these Cave Canem clowns all conspire to make me drink. Thgis time we were at Gatsby's discussing everything from the sorry state of the majority of the poetry to be heard at the National Poetry Slam to how many songs folks have actually been able to fit on their iPODs. This class continues to be really good for me as the exercises are giving me more and more new poems. The latest one i'm working with is one in which we write the poem of our death beds. I couldn't find an in into the poem until i walked out the house this afternoon and there was a van parked utside the florist's down the block. The back door was open and a man was loading funeral wreaths into it, but the most festive meringue was blaring from the back and i figured this was my in, so we'll see. i should have a first draft by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, i'm gearing up for Masquerade again. We're talking July here folks and i can't figure out for sure how to make it better than the last time, but of course part of my ego-trip/personal drama is that i feel it has to be better than the last time or it's a failure. So i'm going back to the writing and hopefully i can show something at east a shade better than we saw last time.
It'll also be interesting doing it in the peak of summer as opposed to fall and winter. It's about to be on... like socks..
By the way, i just got done reading Martin Espada's "A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen" and it is as expected - phenomenal. Get it. I'm also still reading "Pathologies of Power" and what it exposes about U.S. policies vis a vis foreign countries and regimes that are dictatorships in other places is horrific and is the kind of thing that should be the focus of 60minutes and 20/20 features, because U.S. policy actively promotes poverty and death and poor health care in other countries in order to keep particular regimes in power and to further America's own profit and political motives. What we're not allowed to know about Haiti and Cuba and Nicaragua and Russia would make many of us cry to know that our tax dollars have contributed to this. If you are a student of global politics and care at all about understanding the truth about how power works (or doesn't) for poor people in the world go get Paul Farmer's "Pathologies of Power".
Okay. I'm done preaching, but this book hurts.
Later.
So the pattern seems to be now that after class on a Tuesday night, these Cave Canem clowns all conspire to make me drink. Thgis time we were at Gatsby's discussing everything from the sorry state of the majority of the poetry to be heard at the National Poetry Slam to how many songs folks have actually been able to fit on their iPODs. This class continues to be really good for me as the exercises are giving me more and more new poems. The latest one i'm working with is one in which we write the poem of our death beds. I couldn't find an in into the poem until i walked out the house this afternoon and there was a van parked utside the florist's down the block. The back door was open and a man was loading funeral wreaths into it, but the most festive meringue was blaring from the back and i figured this was my in, so we'll see. i should have a first draft by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, i'm gearing up for Masquerade again. We're talking July here folks and i can't figure out for sure how to make it better than the last time, but of course part of my ego-trip/personal drama is that i feel it has to be better than the last time or it's a failure. So i'm going back to the writing and hopefully i can show something at east a shade better than we saw last time.
It'll also be interesting doing it in the peak of summer as opposed to fall and winter. It's about to be on... like socks..
By the way, i just got done reading Martin Espada's "A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen" and it is as expected - phenomenal. Get it. I'm also still reading "Pathologies of Power" and what it exposes about U.S. policies vis a vis foreign countries and regimes that are dictatorships in other places is horrific and is the kind of thing that should be the focus of 60minutes and 20/20 features, because U.S. policy actively promotes poverty and death and poor health care in other countries in order to keep particular regimes in power and to further America's own profit and political motives. What we're not allowed to know about Haiti and Cuba and Nicaragua and Russia would make many of us cry to know that our tax dollars have contributed to this. If you are a student of global politics and care at all about understanding the truth about how power works (or doesn't) for poor people in the world go get Paul Farmer's "Pathologies of Power".
Okay. I'm done preaching, but this book hurts.
Later.
