The misadventures of a multifaceted human
Tilt my head up
the starry sky cuff my chin
The full moon lunars
Oceanic breezes sail across my face
Taste the tsunami
As we draw closer,
planets begin to align
our lips touch
Sparkling comets flare
Supernova explode in nebulas nearby
Big bang theory is remarkable
Then I open my eye
Watch your constellations in the sky
Let’s have sushi
She shouts with excitement
My mind ponders the notion
Okay, let’s do it
Curiously, she asked;
What do you like?
I am not sure
I don’t eat a lot of it.
Well, let’s try some
Okay. Poof!
dishes appear
Dragon, & Tiger
Each roll decked with
vegetables, rice, meat, peppers, & fruit
rolled up with a seaweed wrap
Eat one, pass; eat one, pass.
design with color and flavor
An artisan masterpieces
We raise our chopsticks
Kanpai
Our Selections; strategic
Power plays; epic
Chess pieces for dinner
A pacific rim commotion
Rook takes queen
send them passed the lips
Storm my mouth castle
Godzilla of flavors rain down on my tastes buds people
Destroy my palette dynasty
Fight my tongue shogun
Drum of tears and sweats
Pour from my pores
My face: a kabuki mask
The demon, shogun, clown, crying baby.
My anime eye envision Geisha
With Wasabi swords slice my senses swiftly
Touch, taste, sight, sound, smell
Separate sequentially.
Kanryo
We set our chopsticks down
She look at me and smile
Says something in Japanese
Grabs my hand and we sprint into the night.
silhouetted shadows surface swiftly
We wisp between stopped cars.
Damn you, gaijin
Gaijin? Shit.
I’m a ninja.
Into the alley, ascending steps.
We stand on Mount Fuji
Apartments
Her presence opens the door
And a fog of Smoke greets us
She giggles and disappears into the fog
I follow.
Dazed and confused
judo thrown onto a bed.
I lay down bewildered
Until the smoke clear
She appears
Naked
in front of the bed
With Wasabi and sake
She said,
Sushi?
Pass beyond a security door and enter large room to meet the time clock. The clock is a Nazi but that is okay, I have to punch it daily. I sit in a 4X5 cubic space in the center of the room. The enclosure has no window to eliminate the distraction of scenery and time. Pictures of beaches fill Bob’s cubicle wall but time carry a knife and comes by every hour to prick our necks. A reminder that our lives lost time. Time kills.
Gluten-free Jeanine silently finishes the last danish from the coffee table. This room would be a quiet place if, not for the tap, tap, tapping on the keyboards.
I monitor the monitors monitoring me. An audiovisual stand-off. As artificial lighting overhead illuminates. Jane tolerates a migraine daily. My calendar is my conscience that ponders what I ponder: garbage in – garbage out.
Dave got fired yesterday. Vultures circle his unmanned desk. I got dibs on the multi-colored markers.
From the break room, the smell of burnt popcorn wafts. It is the perfume of the damned. I scrap together six coins to pay the dealer’s new price: A-3, Snicker bar, please. Office refrigerator stores memories of employees long gone. Passive aggressive notes mark our slow descent into hell. Keep your hands off my sandwich – Phil. Boss brings her special creamer to work and signs her name on it. A sharpie will not stop me. I dump half in the sink and leave a thank you note from Phil.
I trick myself everyday by saying I belong here and this is what I deserve. My therapist says I’m in an abusive relationship with my job.
Yesterday, there was a training video about office shooters. Not sure, if it was prevention or tutorial. Will see how the next evaluation goes?
Translated by me:
Lying on his side, with an uncomfortable elbow resting between the cement and his head, he lies on his back asleep. Knees bent, feet against his behind, huge belly to the sky, mouth opened, nose flat.
This is the work of 2 or 3 bottles.
If he were marble, he would he would be displayed in museums in Rome, London and Paris as an example of Hellenistic art. Plus, the flies wouldn’t bother him.
#writing #writer #poems #authors #railway #station #Hellenisticperiod #marble #rome #london #paris #napowrimo #napowrimo2018
I
Enter
Words of Dark
Suicide Thoughts
In to a cellphone
So when it’s discovered
People will read about me
And the demon that inside of me
Help, my mental is detached
I touch a screen of ghost
Poltergeist, they’re here
Numbers are pressed
It’s ringing
Hello?
No
I created and published a local literary zine / guide book in Sacramento that has been in circulation for six months. It is called Iambic. Click here to head over to the Iambic Tab. I never thought I would be a magazine publisher but here is why I did it. This article below was added to Iambic issue 6:
Downtown Sacramento offers dozen of venues for art events. Second Saturday just shows a glimpse of it. On any given day, you can find visual arts, music, comedy, burlesques, and theater plays.
There is also large poetry community. I have been part of Sacramento poetry for the past two years. I entered the scene with little knowledge of the scope of poetry in Sacramento. Over the past two years, I have dedicated time and energy to seeking out as many poetry forums as I can find. I visited over a dozen venues and special events, met hundreds of poets in the area who regularly perform and have even worked with several on projects. What became apparent was that Sacramento lacked an up-to-date resource where people can seek out events, venues, coaches, and information about the Sacramento poetry scene. I looked at what had been established and decided that a zine would be appropriate for these three simple factors:
When I moved to Sacramento from Stockton in October 2015, I checked the Eskimo pie website (www.eskimopie.net). It offered a calendar for open mic venues and poetry events in the Central Valley community. It was established by Rebecca Morrison, well known poet in the Sacramento poetry community. I had the fortune to meet Rebecca during her personal trip back to the states. The site became a great blueprint to model sections in Iambic.
I learn one of the big caveats in literary magazines is that any work posted on social media is considered to be published. Poets and writers want to present their work to the masses but Industry wants to be the first to do it. Poets and writers early in their careers need small publications looking for new and unique works to feature them. Iambic offers a no-cost way to submit your work for consideration for publication. We publish frequently and our scope is very broad. I also created a “Youth Poet” section which feature poets less than 25 years of age.
I was alone when I moved to Sacramento. I got a position at The Art institute, and was living with roommates. My friend circle was bleak. I needed to find an activity to distract me from this. I discovered the Sacramento Poetry Center. I went to an open mic and was interested with poetry again. So, I asked a few poets about other venues and they directed me to them. So, I checked out all the open mic venues in the area and it became a habit. I started participating in open mics and studying to be a poet and spoken word artist. But, I notice that not all poets go to every open mic venue or workshop in town regularly. Poets started noticing and asking me about different venues. I would give them my analysis and I became known as a circuit poet.
I created Iambic to serve my poetry community as a guide since; there are a variety of venues for patrons and workshops for poets to work on their craft. But, it was also to make outsiders aware that a poetry scene exists. So, I have been publishing Iambic for 6 months. Here is to another successful six months!
Wendy Williams extraordinary story goes beyond being a open mic host at Sacramento Poetry Center. She is a speaker, published writer/ poet, English teacher, Coach, and visual artist. She considers herself an artistic Healer. Her website, Restory your life, present her work and her experience with Post traumatic stress disorder. I interview Wendy with 10 unique questions for July’s issue:
When did you start writing poetry and why continue doing it?
I started writing poetry in 1976. I was struggling in life and poetry provided me with an outlet for intense emotion and a way to get clarity by putting ideas onto a page.
When did you start hosting poetry readings and why?
I started hosting poetry around 2013. I was on the board for the Sacramento Poetry Center. After Paco Marquez, the previous host, left for graduate school in New York City, Bob Stanley asked if I wanted to fill the vacancy and I went for it!
Do you watch poetry at other venues like Mahogany, Shine café, or Luna’s café? Why?
I’ve been to Shine and Luna’s. I especially like Luna’s because of the super open mic where all types of folks read and react. There’s a lot of emotion from the audience and the poets, which feels good.
Did you ever wanted to go & hang out at Shine Café due to its LGBTQA following that is present there?
Yeah, I’m gonna check out the LGBTQA scene at Speak Out Sacramento. Haven’t yet.
As a PTSD survivor, is your message to help others people deal with their PTSD? Is that what your website’s main objective?
My main objective for the website is to help others see that they might unknowingly have PTSD or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. (I don’t like the “Disorder” part of the term because, in my view, it’s inaccurate.) In any case, I have PTSD from an infant surgery without anesthesia. Many people experience symptoms from early trauma but don’t realize it. They conclude they are crazy, weird, or screwed up. Some drink or do drugs to deal with symptoms. I want people to know that they could be suffering from unresolved trauma and they can get help. They can work to resolve the trauma and find relief, understanding, and peace.
You have several poems published and a book. Impressive. Which way do you like better? Publishing a book or submit poems for publish books?
I like the process of getting a book published more than the act of sending out poems. Working with Dave Boles, my editor of Cold River Press, was easy and fun. He’s super professional. And he’s a real nice guy.
So, tell me about Restory your life?
ReStory Your Life is about using writing to heal from trauma and reclaim your authenticity. Oftentimes, trauma (past hurts) run our life and we’ve got to face our pain and resolve it so that we can become more of our real self. Freedom after trauma is what we’re after. I teach Writing as Healing classes and have done speaking engagements on this subject. I’ve also worked one-on-one with folks.
Viewing your website, poems, books, and art; what do you consider yourself? Artist? Healer?
I am an artist healer.
How do you feel about the current state of poetry presented by young poets?
I love the young poets’ poetry–lots of emotion, caring, concern for others, passion, anger about injustice, and experimentation. l like spoken word poetry and the slam experience. I LOVE all the slants rhymes because language is being used in a new way.
How would you feel if you were appointed poet laureate? What would you do?
Poet laureate? I’d feel overwhelmed. I’m still teaching at community college and getting a Writing as Healing class off the ground. Let’s say I were appointed for fun’s sake. Maybe I’d spearhead a big conference/celebration/slam week to showcase all the different poets and types of poetry in the Sacramento area. We’d have workshops running all day and ask the public schools to participate. It would be like a poetry lovefest for our region. We have so much richness, don’t we? Let’s all get-together and see who we are and share it with everyone. We’d make most of the events free somehow and try to get grants or donations for use of a space. We’d also invite folks in from the surrounding counties to check us out. Sound grand? It could be.
Thank you for reading the interview with Wendy Williams. You can find more about Wendy and her life healing program at http://www.restoryyourlife.com
I was surprised to find out that masturbation month was celebrated in May. An odd rabbit hole to fall into. In the past, it occurred to me how ashamed I felt about the act. I never wanted to catch my kids or vise-versa doing it. It was a struggle to understand that masturbation is normal. We all should educate ourselves(with our partners) about masturbation to destroy the taboo in society. The more we understand it, the better we will feel about it. But, what about mental masturbation?
Cristian wrote a compelling blog post on the lone writer. It is what 98% of all writers do. Any writing profession has a person writing alone. I struggle with this because it is an antisocial state of mind. I enjoy the emotional release I get when I write but, you are left with a choice: do I let someone read this and give me feedback or do I hide or destroy it? Unlike speaking aloud, you still have control on what is written and who will see it.
But Read Cristian’s Post below and I bet you will also agree:
“An artist is always alone – if he is an artist.” – Henry Miller Writing is a lonely job, no doubt about it. And no matter how successful you might become, you’re still alone. It’s the inexorable truth of the writer’s condition: you sit at your desk, in an empty room or in the most […]
Res Wonderland 