skin over my joints
breaks like the missouri – streams
trickle through and from
slowly making way to the valley of my thumb
dermis over my lobes
red like the georgia soil – vital
in the frozen mud
underneath dirt, underneath blood
skin over my bones
shake like the bay area – beams
crack when andreas tickles
stalks stand on end expecting sickle
white as down, my bones
brace like minnesota – needing,
greeting the coldest days
to sieve the sleepy pale from my face
What inspires you to write? Like...I REALLY want to write like this. Maybe you can give me some tips...but then again superheroes never reveal the source of their power. Ah man! *pouts*
ReplyDeleteyou really want to know? 'cuz i don't really know. some of this stuff i did during my last "academic" (meaning, non-student teaching) semester at UIC in a poetry class. i don't know how to say it w/o sounding full of myself, but my teach said that somethings you just can't teach. i guess it's kind of like acting.
ReplyDeletenot that it's not work or that a person can't find his or her voice. in fact, that's the crucial part, the work you commit to finding your voice. it's kind of like prose. part of it is just reading good works by others and infusing that.
for me (and of course, this is where i get all haughty), it all started many, many moons ago...
no, i'm not as committed to doing poetry as i was some ten years ago when i did a new one each week, but now that i've kind of discovered poetry slams (see: that's something that i CAN'T be but i wish i could, just spitting out words! i have to craft them, they take time. lots of time.) i have a new fire under my bush.
you're wearing me out, trying to keep up with you. i'm just following your comments (like who else is commenting?)
I think you mentioned two things I'm horrible with, and that explains why my 'poems' are so choppy or just plain crapola.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I never write poetry often AT ALL. I'm a lame-o who believes in supranatural inspiration, and waits for it. Like one waits for a train at Union station. If you ever come to Toronto, you'll know what I mean.
Lastly, I loathe reading other people's poetry and imitating it. Yes, yes classical poetry's lineage was founded on the art of mimesis, but I'm a post-modernists. Heck, I'm a revolutionarrryyy *puts fist up* I don't have to buy into these traditional schemes of 'repetition and slumber' -TS Eliot. Yeah baby! Free verse rules!
...
I suck at being a poser revolutionary.
Thanks for the advice :)
I've never done a slam but plan to in the near future. I'm taking a spoken word workshop this month, so I hope it adds more vigor to my agressiveness (read: I'm a punk on stage).
ReplyDeleteAnd don't worry, I'll direct traffic to your page if I can. Usually people who are on my Dope List interact with each other. In dopeness.
I haven't said Shalom in a while, so here it goes:
SHALOOOOOM.
yes, revolt (who by the way, i don't know your real name and i am NOT going to settle calling you revolt), I believe we all suck at being poser revolutionaries (that said in my best, poser professor voice).
ReplyDeletebut t.s. took great pains to understand that his art was founded off the shoulders of giants, and created something new with it. likewise the same is true in no matter the generation. dylan took fairie tales and twisted them to find desolation row. g. m. hopkins searched diligently for germanic-root words that he thought best served the english language. whitman tried to do something new and revolutionary and completely american, but his work's crap (ok, my opinion). i think we're better served to delve into the greats every once in a while (it's not like i sit in coffee shops sipping tea and reading poetry all day. it's coffee and non-fiction.).
at the beginning, i was more influenced by lyric writers like bono and gene eugene from adam again (get their stuff from ebay if you get a chance. Adam Again, "Dig.") but i had to learn to read other stuff too.
as far as waiting for the muses. yeah, we're not supposed to do that. but we writers do. i think, however, that it's oftentimes good just to write for the practice of it and to get the mess out of your system.
peace,
j.
volt,
ReplyDeletehere's my spanish thank you (in keeping with my irish - quarter rican heritage):
Moochy Grassy-as*
Oh I'm sorry. I keep forgetting the e-world knows me as Revolt and nothing more, because in my mind I'm always addressing myself as Christine.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, the name is Christine :) It's kinda flakey, which is why I like the alias Revolt since it's strong and intimidating (or so I think).
And also, since I'm an aspiring poet/spoken word artist who seeks to speak po(et)litically about race, culture and social relations, Christine just doesn't cut it. Ick. Christine sounds like I should have sunflowers in my hair and sing Joni Mitchell songs all day...wait, that doesnt even sound bad. Nevermind.
BUT shout outs to my parents though, I do have Christ in my name.
lol moochy grassy-as. So let me get this straight, you're Irish quarter Rican with a dash of...? You gotta have a dash of something else. You know, for that 'bam!' effect :)
yep, the Dutch definitely bring out the "Bam!" effect. Ok, scottish, english, french & spanish (through my puerto rican abuela), and luxemburgeouiseneseeeya (i don't know how to spell or pronounce it).
ReplyDeletequarter-rican is a joke from when i was a wee tot and mathematically figured out that i'm quarter Puerto Rican and mangled it together. i was at a little b-day party for a friend last week and sitting on a small sofa with my fully PR friend, his bi-racial son and me in that order. somebody pointed it out: full, 1/2, quarter-rican.
but, dang, girl. I LIKE Christine! it gives me goosebumps. it fits and i don't think of it as a soft name at all. i think it's really pretty, but powerful, if not for the Christological aspects, just the sound of it. i don't know. if you want me to call you Volt, i will. but i ain't calling you revolt. maybe in the future i'll give some leeway and call you re-vote or something. but i really like christine.
*tee-hee.* i've got a school-boy crush on your name. awww, shucks!
oh, and i think you forgot an 's' on that 'moochy grassy-a*s'
ReplyDeletepeace,
j.
Oh my goodness *blush* You cannot be serious! No one likes my name! LOL, no one has ever had a crush on it before. This means my name has become its own entity. Wait a minute! This isn't supposed to happen. Hee hee, it would be way too ironic to be jealous of my own name at this point.
ReplyDeleteAnd WOW at all your nationalities all fused into one person. Do you ever feel like one ethnicity one day and another the next? Do you ever crave English muffins and then want paella at the same time? I always wonder about how 'creolized' people understand themselves. I'm actually a little envious, because you have such a rich mixture of cultures. So many flags to wave, so little time.
LOL @ the quarter-rican explanation, I don't know if this is possible to know already, but to me you do kinda come off 'espanolic'. Like I would think I'm conversing with a Latin/Hispanic guy. hee hee...
*wink* *wink* *wink*
(sorry, got something in my eye)
to quote conan o'brien:
ReplyDelete??HUHH??
as far as the ethnicities and all, i find comfort that i can grab my identity in Christ, because culturally, ethnically, socio-politically, i'm a man w/o a home who, nevertheless believes in community. i kinda wish that i was fully p.r. or fully irish or something. i know people who are who feel that that's boring, but please at least you got a home and people aren't so befuddled around you. i grew up in the "ghetto" (that's a series of posts there) of humboldt park (largely p.r. with black, mexican, appalaichan ("hill-billy"), and now "yuppie" peoples. i've always felt uncomfortable around a large group with only one color represented. like i'm always looking for the person of color when i'm around whites, for the latino around blacks, etc., etc.
hey, you're just getting over somebody. you shouldn't feel any jealousy directed at any guy's attention toward anybody - or name. :P
bulls are catching up. stupid. and ben's gonna foul out.
some of my p.r. friends are upset with me 'cuz i tell 'em i don't speak spanish. i tell 'em i don't know gaelic either. yeah, my identity's in Christ. i love my heritages, and i am in no way ashamed of them (heck, i wear them as a badge), but it ain't easy.
yeah, there's a post in there somewhere.