Category Archives: 30/30

NaPoWriMo #23: Politics at the Dinner Table

Good commentary going on over at Bryant Terry’s twitter feed. It’s always tough when folks can’t get over an artist’s political leanings and even worse when folks want their artist to exist as blank political slate so they don’t have to disagree with em. All I know is I like authors to be real people with real opinions and if I agree with their politics-cool. If I don’t agree with their politics, then I have to think twice about buying their books. If the author claims to have no political leanings at all, then I really don’t want their books.

You don’t need to sign-up for Twitter to get to know Bryant Terry’s politics. Just read a few recipes from his excellent book, Vegan Soul Kitchen, and you’ll get great insight into fair food practices, find where culture and the kitchen meet, and (score!) yummy recipes that take advantage of local produce and get folks to spend some time in the kitchen.

Here’s today’s poem and sound track follows:

Politics at the Dinner Table

[Poem was here.]

NaPoWriMo #22: Lil O Will Never Be A B-Boy


Adidas Superstar 80s
Originally uploaded by markhassize11feet

Been trying to write this one for a while. In case you’re wondering, I am NOT Lil O. During my writing last summer I came up with three characters who were coming through my stories, one of them is Omar and that’s where the name comes from. On the flip side, I have never actually been a b-boy and that’s the piece of me that is true in this poem. Not that truth is any kind of prerequisite for a poem.

Soundtrack is embedded below.

Lil O Will Never Be A B-Boy

[Poem was here.]

NaPoWriMo #21: By the Time I Get to Arizona

Damn, Gov Brewer. What da hell happened? Who got it in your head that this would be a good idea?

Too many questions and too much anger and you best believe it’s going to get hotter in AZ before it’s all said and done.

The soundtrack for this song is a bit of departure but works for me.

By the Time I Get to Arizona

[Poem was here, now posted at Facebook’s Poets Responding to SB 1070 and in La Bloga’s On-Line Floricanto.]

NaPoWriMo #20: Close (to the Edit)

Another forgotten page in the history of early hip-hop: The Art of Noise.

Nuthin would get a circle of breakers together faster than the break beats this group put together. I know I’m runnin short on ideas for 30/30 so I may have to return to this soundtrack again to drum up some more new poems. Soundtrack is embedded after the poem:

Close (to the Edit)

[Poem was here.]

NaPoWriMo #19: Why A New Car Is More Dangerous Than An Old Girlfriend


Chevy Nova SS
Originally uploaded by bcostin

Day 20 is the real crunch time for the 30/30 challenge as far as I’m concerned. It feels like the time when my ideas are running dry and it feels like I’m stealing from myself. It also feels like a good time to dig into my own personal toolbox of writing prompts and see what I can find in there.

I’m thinking that the hardest part about writing poems is the actual mechanics of poetry: line breaks, distinct syntax, metaphor and simile. If I can’t find those things in the first three lines, I just start to give up. What to do? Write what comes to mind while telling my internal editor to go out and get me a burger. Most times this leads to me writing prose (a very dangerous prospect for me since I don’t claim to be a prose writer), then worry later about shaping the poem. I’ve written at least two good poems with this technique and credit Patricia Smith for first putting me onto it.

Here’s the story which will become a poem:

Why A New Car Is More Dangerous Than An Old Girlfriend

[Poem was here.]