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Cleaning to Avenue Q

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I was going to do my first Friday Reads post in a while, but gave up 330 words in. It’s coming soon!

Tomorrow is likely to be a review of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. My wife saw all the Star Wars movies starting at 3am yesterday and wants to see the movie with me tomorrow and with her brother Bill next week so that’s a very good omen.

So that would be bringing back the Saturday Night Review again.

Maybe, I will try to do a poem for Tuesday and bring back the Port Veritas Poetry Tuesday. I really miss Port Veritas in Maine. Great touring poets, good vibe, and felt like home. Unfortunately, the Bridgeport reading does not. Although I may try it again. And Wednesdays are a bad night for me, was doing a Thursday class for Community Health Worker all fall.

So, after working tonight, I played some Johnny Cash chords while listening to iTunes. It was pretty great. I love the Ultimate Guitar Tab App although it crashes a lot and likes to put in ads sometimes. My favorite of the night was “Give My Love to Rose”, I find the E/A/D combo easier than the more awkward G/D/C. Especially if you play A with one finger like my instructor suggests. I am looking forward to taking guitar lessons again. It’s kind of awesome to pull up a song on iTunes and then find the tab and play with it. I see why chords can work better than tab. Tab may work well for some songs but can be more precise.

And then after an hour of guitar playing, I put on the Avenue Q soundtrack and starting cleaning. Got the shower scrubbed down with some Comet, did a dishwasher load, did the litterbox, starting the washing machine (going to run to the dryer) and some other minor cleaning. You can get quite a bit done in an hour. I think I may do that again. Makes a nice timer.

Looking forward to a guest coming soon, but I need to be in bed in 30 minutes in order to get 8 hours of sleep and get up at 5:15am tomorrow so I am available for 6am. I swapped with someone this week so she took my Sunday shift. Makes for a long weekend, but having a full weekend off is fantastic.

I can’t believe it’s Christmas in a week and we have family coming in 5 days. But 2 loads done in the dishwasher (Lanna did one too), the table is clean, going to do ornaments and Star Wars tomorrow.

Nice to have my friend Brenna coming tonight on her way to NYC tomorrow. Although I basically won’t see her. And it’s a stress relief to get a lot of cleaning done tonight.

Hooray for blogging!

Amazing Female Slam Poets

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Wanted to accomplish cleaning up my office since we have a guest coming over this weekend I had the day off.

But nope got up at 4am and was half awake and running through the internet.

So wandered about through Facebook for much of the day (went back to sleep from noon-3pm).

Sharing Facebook memes up a storm.

And since it’s the first day of the Women of the World slam I also listened to some of the best female slam poets in the country. And writing this I realize that is today’s topic.

Such as Portland’s own Port Veritas Women of the World Champion, UMaine freshman Ellyn Touchette. This is her break out poem “To Todd Akin”.

Another is the #3 rated slam poet in the world the fabulous Maine native now living in Minneapolis, MN Kait Rokowski. “Nails” in an amazing poem. I am lucky to have amazing parents.

One of my favorite prose poets is the fabulous Andrea Gibson. She was the first Woman of the World champion and I am currently reading her amazing book “Madness Vase.” Her website is fabulous and easy to use too. This is her poem “maybe I need you.” She is a spectacular wordsmith.

And here is another Women of the World champion Theresa Davis. She is a superstar from Atlanta. Here is her anti-bullying poem “It Takes a Village.”

The 2009 Women of the World champion is the fabulous Rachel McKibbens who will be in Portland, Maine next week. Monday night at 9pm at Mama’s Crowbar, tickets are $10 and available at the bar in advance (likely to sell out). And Tuesday night at 5:30 workshop and 7pm poetry slam and performance. $15 for show only/$25 for show and workshop. This is upstairs at Bull Feeney’s.

And I was also lucky recently to hear the fabulous Lauren Zuniga in Portland. This is her fantastic “To the Oklahoma Lawmakers.”

These amazing women are a big reason I love slam poetry. It’s one of the most alive formats in the world. See it when you can. There isn’t a better deal in entertainment.

Poetry vs. Stand Up

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Today while watching the absolutely amazing youth slam and judging, I thought again how fulfilling I find poetry.

I was listening to George Hamm on the Lounging with Lannalee podcast last week and he talked about how laughter and stand up is an addiction for him. Something he just craves. While I enjoyed stand up I never felt this way about it. I found it fun but very lonely and awkward. Of course, probably would have helped if I wrote some good material and didn’t improv it.

Kind of ironic when you think about it that I stay on page so much for poetry, and fear breaking away from the script, when I didn’t even write it for stand up.

But, I find poetry so much more fulfilling for my heart and my soul. I hear open mikes at Local Sprouts/Port Veritas or Slainte/ Rhythmic Cypher and I like and enjoy most of the poetry. I hear open mikes for stand up and Slainte and a lot of it is frankly painful.

Poetry just speaks to me deeply. But, I have lots of respect for stand-up. It’s much, much harder than it looks.

And I hope to be as good someday as some of the insanely great high school students at the youth slam tonight. 2 already made the team from winning monthly slams, Kelsey Kehoe and Arianna Northrup, and the other 3 women who qualified for the team tonight all slammed well enough I think to win monthly slams too. The youth in Maine are fierce, #PortVeritas’ work in school is succeeding. This is amazing. I feel so happy to be a fan and put out my words, even if they are just some fun haikus.

Edmund

Haiku Slam

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Made the mistake of bringing actual haikus on nature to a Haiku slam. The 3 I read were.

The birds sing in
The coming spring, waiting
For friends to arrive (loss)

Black flies in all
of their splendor biting,
Feeding, tis the season (win)

Red buds, green buds
Birds returning to branches
Welcome to Spring (loss)

Wish I had 3 out of 5.

Some other poems I wrote for Haiku Slam, next time I will go more for silly.

Bird shape through cloud
Times of migration north
Time of the long day

Mornings of wonder
Kitties bring fitful sleep,
The wonders of working.

Creators, artists
Sharing their joys, their tears
Their beautiful works

Remember to pause
Remember to think
Remember rest

New life
Awakens from the holes
Scared of the cold

Fucking tired
Needing to write poems
Time to slam

Dominion with
Lanna, time for laughs
Time for games

Day of renewal
Spring beginning
Sins forgiven, Peace.

Opening Day
Time to believe again
Even for Cubs fans

March Madness
Time for gamblers
And pools

Marshall stacked
Walls of sound
Take it to 11

Spinal Tap
Musicians being silly, playing
Having absurd fun

Mornings up slow
Letting the day drift in
One sip at a time

Looking forward to it again next time.

Poetry slam tonight was epic. Great job by everyone. Congratulations to Kayla, Nate, Wil, Lulu and Heidi. Poetry makes me happy.

Edmund

Reading Chapbooks

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One of my joys of the last year+ has been going to read and listen and support Port Veritas on Tuesdays at Blue, and now Local Sprouts. Tuesdays are now one of my favorite days of the week.

I have heard many amazing poets from Portland like: Wil Gibson, Arianna Northrup, Beau, Heidi Therrien, Sarah Lynn Herklots, Tina Smith, Ryan McLellan…. And guests like Theresa Davis, John “Survivor” Blake, Jason Carney, Liz Heath …

It’s an amazing time. And often I will get merchandise from both local poets and features including CDs, chapbooks (generally small poetry books), etc.

I have really enjoyed most of these chapbooks, usually made like zines with a few poems, and a staple with a cover in the middle. They are quite often very homebrew, and they really hit a short period of how a poet is over a year, or with a theme. The focus is what makes them great.

So I encourage everyone to attend the local readings in Portland and purchase chapbooks, CDs, and t-shirts, etc. from these great artists. It’s a wonderful thing.

From the weekly readings at Slainte on Sundays around 8pm with music called Rhythmic Cypher, the 9pm reading at Mama’s Crowbar on Mondays, or the main Port Veritas reading at 7pm at Local Sprouts on Tuesday. It’s 3 great nights of poetry in Portland. As well as special events like Lowry’s Lounge once a month at the Acorn studio theater at the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook (next on April 13th at 7pm.)

So, go to hear the great poets of Portland, slam or not. I am not sure I am really a slam poet, it’s not really my comfort zone. And if you can support Port Veritas with a monthly donation, I am giving $5/month right now and planning to increase it to $10/month soon.

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As far as reading this week, I started Quiet and a sixth of the way through, I have been reading the Bible quite a bit including the Torah again.

I also read some of “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary”, absolutely fascinating. Wish I had more time to look at it, and didn’t start the last week I had it from the library. I also wish I had more of a grounding on the Torah and Judiasm first. It’s a book I plan to go back to and quite an amazing project. ***1/2 (4 GR)

I read the Contract with God Trilogy, which I talked about earlier in the week on a blogpost. ***1/2 (4 GR)

I have also started Hugh Howey’s “Half Way Home” again which is likely to be finished in the next week and very, very good. ***1/2 for now (4 GR) about 20% in

It’s been an intense month or so since knowing Walter has been sick and dying. I am glad I have books to help me through this hard time. And poetry.