go over to NYC24.com and then click on the article titled “Image Conscience”

it’s written by mah friend caitlin and she needs the hits as part of her writing class

thank you very much

now go outside and hit sumbody wit a snow ball

i dont understand the deal with the remote blog postings. i just finished setting the posts from Liberty in chronological order but i have no idea why some posted right on time and some didnt. tato, just glad that they got to the blog and i could lay down mah thoughts as they were happening.

i am still UBER-psyched about the retreat. ima have to write a serious follow up post cuz i still dont think that all of it has sunk in.

jess at spiralbridge was the “truth.” she was not feeling well and had every right to cancel out or dial in a half ass performance but instead came through like a champion… thats how you spell “professional.” she also delivered her poems straight ahead with a minmum of backstory or senseless banter… truly she is my hero.

last night at 13 was the best time i had in a while. i continue to avoid the banter that detracts from actually listening to the mic. for mahself, i wrote at least one good line from every poem i heard even the poems that as a whole i felt did not succeed. the slam was a slam- ’nuff said. mike mcgee came through and delivered two poems (though i thought the second piece was closer to prose) that will stick with me for a while and then i was out! pulled a raymond daniel and left with little fanfare. this may be my new modus operandi.

love ya like snow loves lil kids mittens

“who the hell is this?
pagin me at five forty six
in da mornin
crack a dawnin”

in reality, it was at 7:15 but close enough. let’s establish one thing- i am NOT a morning person. getting up early was cool since that will equate into gettin more conversation in, additional feedback on my poems and (the norm in my life) more chicanery. big negative… actually having to get up at that hour.

the sun was blazin through the back windows of the house, giving the rooms the most luminescence of the day. residual snow was picked up by the winds, adding sparkle to the day and the trees sung their silent lyrics to the tune of a crisp wind and all i could write was some hallmark type shit. note to self- the early AM is not your optimum writing time.

from there we moves on to a writing exercise that, in my estimation, was designed to generate new approaches to writing as opposed to birthing new poems. i am probably saying this since i found the exercise to be very challenging and could not generate anything close to a cohesive poem. still, we shared and got to hear some more good work and constructive critique.

we ended by reading one last finished poem from our respective collections (read- oscar’s chapbook), handing out some extra exercises and packin up. the end looked like the final episode of “The Real World” where nobody wants to say goodbye but we all now better.

no worries. we’re meeting up again in a few weeks, see where our revisions have taken us, share new exercises and (maybe) submit some work for publication.

time to head to jersey for tata’s reading at spiralbridge…

mission: rewrite has proven to be a success. 18 months after i laid down the first draft, ‘Brooklyn Back Break Beat’ is about 90% done. all thats left is some actual onstage reading which will help me nail down the words and pauses but that wont be affecting the final written version so much since i’m laying it down as a prose poem. the break through happened when i finally let go of ALL the lines that come from its birth as a poem commenting on gentrification which quickly became an unexpected love poem.

after some off the hook ratatouile (sp?) over angel hair we shared our rewrites and got back some final feedbacks. not all the rewrites came out better than the original. some were, some werent, some were a mix. all mad poetry nerd fun though as this group has gelled quickly and the trust is very high. a certain poet (who loves to yell WEPA!) that we all know & love has a kick.ASS rewrite that almost qualifies as a completely different poem.

also on the list was one of the best rundowns on Nuyorican Poets Cafe history (circa 1992-96) i ever done heard as we got the serious bonchiche on the scene back then.

soon may come the submission party where we make a whole day of figuring out where each individual poets work should go to. its a hustle, to say the least, but not much different than the PR power you put into the slam/performance scene.

in the “power of language” dept- i explained to folks the difference between the words ‘descend’ and ‘plummet’
:: passengers, the plane is about to descend into JFK
:: passengers, the plane is about to plummet into JFK
guess which one causes releif and which one instills panic… (ding!)… she guessed right! tell her what shes won, bob!

time to crash and try to get up in time to meet then sun and maybe squeeze one more piece of hotness from this trip.

love ya like icicles on windchimes

no sunrise writing exercise. i’m not sure if i am that dissapointed about missing that part but it still may happen tomorrow.

after some light breakfast, we went over a few things and then needed a writing exercise to kick start the day. that came in the form of writing to some music. the poem i came up with is pretty fun but i want to add on to it. its the second time in a week i was able to lay down some new hotness on the fly and both need more room to grow and stretch before i pull out the editing knife.

we then had to move on to more writing so i volunteered the exercise i came up with and (thank god!) it didn’t suck. i’ll post it up later for the curious and the studious. some great conversations came out of it and we also were able to open up a bit on who we are as people/writers. the insights are bananas.

we are about to edit some older work with some new tips and suggestions from the group. it looks like i’m very close to having another “finished” poem in my holster.

time to write more… see y’all in a nickel!