A notebook and a writing implement are your passport. I love writing in darkened theaters and at art museums. But it’s also important to have these tools beside your bed so no dream gets lost.
When you’re performing poetry, that’s also part of the creative process. It’s not just a presentation of a finished piece. When reading, poets will find themselves leaving out words, adding words. And if you leave out a word on the same poem over a period of time, I challenge you to think that maybe that word shouldn’t be there. Performance is another step of editing. Sometimes words will flow from you that need to be added. Most of the time, there are parts that you skip over. But, either way, writing a poem continues as you perform it.
Performing with Alex Colon-Olaniyan at the POEMobile Garifuna event at the Steven Biko Cultural Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn, April 8, 2012.
Readings in Contemporary Poetry at Dia:Chelsea
COME SEE ME AND THOMAS FINK THIS THURSDAY!
Readings in Contemporary Poetry at Dia:Chelsea
Thursday, March 15, 2012, 6:30 pm
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor, NYC
$6 general admission; $3 Dia members, students, and seniors
Tickets are available at the lecture only. Reservations recommended.
To rsvp online, please click the “Reservations” button.
AWP Chicago
AWP IN CHICAGO TODAY! On panel at 4:30 PM at Hilton Chicago. “Poetry’s First Webseries: Verse, A Poetry Murder Mystery” with Ram Devineni, Susan Brennan, Jon Sands, and Lamont Steptoe.
MAX
On a planet of spinning blue
On an island named after the hat of a man
I sit in an old school with my hat on
To shield me from the rays of the sun
I hold up my hand to make the wind move
I hold up my hand to reach the clock
To speed the minutes into hours
How slow the trip of tear from eye to desk
While the answer I hold ready
To unfurl like a flag from my fist
