Finding New Ways to Create | Body Passages Series: Poetry and Dance Collaborations
From conversations with the collaborators and curators, especially Jeanette (Jae) Green, Sara Maslanka, and Natasha Mijares, I was able to gain more insights into the interconnectedness of poetry and dance and the collaborative, creative process.
I’m a Fool for You, Baby
We love as much, as well
as we are able, imperfect,
broken, yet doing
the best that we can,
which isn’t very good
at all.
I Hate You Because I Love You
Living with you is constant emotional pain.
I can't tell if you're passive-aggressive or stupid or both.
I Fall in Love with Difficult People
I fall in love with difficult people.
I can't help it. Anyone who is easily
angered, easily bothered, quick to fight,
quick to hold a grudge, I find
utterly fascinating, charming.
I Want Someone to See What is Good in Me
Some say we are all sinners
I don’t believe in sin
Don’t believe in God either
But Laawwdd I know I’m not perfect
though I try to be
every day as I struggle to get out of bed
make my way
get through the day
Freedom and Truth
I'd rather be truthful than cheerful.
I'd rather have a monkey on my back than be one
Voting Feels Like Date Rape
“You should have known he was a liar and a manipulator.
How stupid are you?
Can’t you tell a liar and a manipulator and a charmer
when you see one?”
Too Much Fun
Passed out early this morning
with a stranger's (new friend's?)
cum on my face,
after drinking too much whiskey,
talking too much,
staying out until
the wee hours of the morning.
Know Your Rights
It’s a free country, right? It’s a free country, right?
I can do whatever I want, be whatever I want,
say whatever I want, shoot whomever I want,
live wherever I want, die however I want.
It’s a free country, right? It’s a free country, right?
Dad
You called me "rebel with a cause.”
What’s Really Bothering Me About These School Shootings
I identify with that anger.
I don’t think anyone knew how really deeply angry and miserable I was throughout my entire childhood and adolescence.
And it was so hard to get free of that environment.
That back and forth between the two prisons of home and school.
Lean Cuisine Brings Both Liberation and Sadness
So convenient. I don’t like to cook.
So why should I have to? It takes
time and planning and organization
and executive functioning.
I forget to eat all the time.
I’ve got other things to do
and think about. Takes five
minutes in the microwave.
Dinner is quick. Grab a fork
and go back to looking
at the computer while I eat.
Dexter is My Soul Mate
I’m in love with Dexter
what a sense of social (or is it personal?) justice
but that’s not what it’s really about
Quixotic Femme
I couldn’t turn my back
and I couldn’t fix it
Story of my life
lame excuse
Quixotic tale
striving for virtue
in a sewer
Do the best you can
Clean up the mess
Show up the next day
Clean up again
YAWP: An Homage to Ginsberg in These Times
I'm no poet. While this is true, it is likewise true that I love poetry and, from time to time, indulge in the urge to write some. If you're really interested, you can go on Amazon and buy a book of my poetry. As I started to search for the thread of the idea behind the piece below, it kept bringing me back to Ginsberg's Howl. It is National Poetry Month, so I went with it.
To a Woman Approaching Her First Spring as a Fifty-Year-Old
So you just turnedfifty,
the big five-0!
Say it softly.
You don’t want your nosy neighbors
to know.
Excerpt from an Anger Journal
Even if your angry interpretation of the situation is morally and factually correct, maybe you need to add more details and information to the angry story you are telling.
My 12-Step Guide to Being a Badass
1. I admitted I was powerless over all the excruciating bullshit in the world—that the life I was expected to live according to straight society was unmanageable, and not a life I wanted to live anyway.
In the Springtime of My Dystopia
There were signs. There were warnings.
We were too in love to pay much attention.
It was merely some background noise,
some clatter, inconvenient clutter.
What were those politicians droning on about?
Overly made-up talk show hosts harping on about
nonsense, trivialities, invented crises.
Grown men wearing the flag like a toga
or burning it in acts of performance art largesse.
Betty Boop Shaves Her Legs and Hooha for Her Big Date
"Oh, I have to hurry up and get ready for my date with Mr. Wonderful. I just wish he had given me more notice. That would have been more considerate than this boop-oop-a-doop booty call. I have to take a shower and shave my legs and everything down there and clip my nails and fix my hair and put on my stockings and fix my makeup and change the sheets and clean the bathroom and the kitchen and tidy up and put the condoms on the nightstand. Where's the lube?"
People stop believing in permanence because permanence stopped believing in them.