a good day

Couple of hours out at PH, just finishing up some orders. Then a nice nap. Skipped the company picnic--just too tired to make the 45 minute drive and walk around all afternoon and evening, but did go to a cookout given by a friend. Wonderful times, but I missed holding and hugging little babies that look like my coworkers.

New chapbook is selling well. What a joy! The artists requests future covers be printed on white cover stock instead of red in order to stay true to the black and white image she created. So, A Woman You Know will be available in two different covers for a while.

Preps for Nationals are going well. Can hardly wait as departure looms closer. This will be a good trip.

What a give it is, each day, simply to breathe.

Okay, so sailing isn't always smooth

I'm in a quandry. Cover artist really wants us to use the high res scan she's decided to FedEx to PH instead of the currently accessible version. Full release in holding pattern! Pre-release (because we'd already run some of them) in process. Sailing isn't always so smooth as I thought.

Folks tend to see me as very conservative, so I guess I'd better explain my cover art choice for A Woman You Know.

The image is that of a distinctly African American woman. Something in her features and frankness hearken back to our assumed heritage, and i liked that very much. But in contrast, she is seated on a very modern and very white chair, the chair, for me, representing everything around her... her world, so to speak. That is pretty much the location of every poem i've written that mentions or approaches the subject of race or heritage. And "coming from" specificallyaddresses our lostness and absorption into a larger whole. It also wanders about looking for (trying to figure out) what foods would have been indigenous to our native villages, what customs might have been performed, all without really knowing because we are sitting in a white chair.... our heritage in this modern age rests, for the most part, where we've been allowed to rest or taught to rest... in the white chair. I guess I'm not really trying to say anything with the cover as much as support what is being said by some of the poems inside. i'm just freakin'out because i know this particular cover art is a bold statement, contrary to almost everyone's image of me. Don't worry.... I'll get over it. Heck, anyway, the cover is red. Assuming the artist still lets us use it, the red will help.

Back to the Point

Hey.... took a couple of days' diversion to get back to normal journaling. Back to the focus of the day now: National Poetry Slam is getting closer, and the book release is happening Thursday! So now what?

Well... now all those of you who were hesitant to "pre-order" anything can call me, IM me, email me, or just go click over to PayPal and know that you will have the new chapbook in the mail within a day or two. (For some of you, the USPS has legs and shows up at your desk or door with a postage refund in its hand. For others of you, you're getting a great deal because I'm only charging you HALF the postage it costs to mail this thing.)

Life is good, and Pudding House Publications (being the largest literary small press in the United States) is a very quick production house. Jen over there has the process down to a science. As long as there's a vision for the book and the book is "clean," meaning no big edits, no tweaks required, it whips right throug the process with no kinks. Sort of like going down a wet slide at the pool. Trust me: We work very hard to enable poets and poetry in a timely fashion.

So... here's the deal: BUY THE CHAP! Oops... I already said that.

Okay. Here's the deal: Anyone who makes a donation of $15.00 or more to the TEAM (at the Make a Donation button) will get a free copy of my upcoming CD (currently in production). I don't have to keep track of who you are--PayPal will do it for me. I'll be sending or delivering a copy when it's ready. Deal?

You'll be helping Columbus, Ohio's team go to Albuquerque and, trust me: This city will be well represented.

Timelines and Mood Music

I never cease to be amazed at how delays or music can affect my readiness and focus. I had a couple of my Nats poems in my pocket last night, ready to catch some handy practice with a live audience, when the night got off to a slow start. Don't get me wrong--a late start was definitely okay, considering the many extra activities on the agenda. But my inherent lack of focus in a crowd without tuning everyone out... my general weariness... that my mood was off, none of this was any excuse: My name got called early in the open mic, and I was NOT ready. Head ready, no. Poem ready, no. Mic ready, not in the least. Heart ready? Well... I did go through with it.

Of course, I had just done a feature the week before under heavy fire of background music, background noise, and extraordinary levels of bar-patron chattiness. Talk about losing focus then--whew! So ,what to read tonight was a pretty tough call. I felt like my feature last week pretty much bombed, but folks in the crowd who'd never seen me do ma thing before... they enjoyed the work. I owe them. They deserved better. Maybe there'll be another time.

Okay, so what does that mean? We are poets. Some of us have years of experience reading or performing our work in live audience. So people should just be able to drop a coin in the slot and hear a poem, right? Wronnnng! Can't so much consistently do that as one could consistently WRITE a poem given a prompt (no matter what Dave Baratier says with his tongue all hung up in his cheek). You may get something done, but it won't be stellar, it won't be heart felt, and it darned sure won't be a true reflection of excellence in your craft. It'll just be that poem you wrote under durress, that one you sold out to create, that one you read when you should have been quiet.

I admit I'm being selfish here. After all, sharing ourselves through art is what poetry is all about. About admitting we can't solve the world's problems and accepting the fact we can only affect it one listener at a time. Or wanting to send great calming vibes out to those few who, for some reason, find a moment's calm, a moment's release, or a moment's joy in our work. Reflecting upon the overlooked, the understated long enough to give that unspoken its voice. We live for those moments, but sometimes we are all just human.

Sometimes listening is the best thing a performance poet (I belie the term) can do in an active room.

Wonderful People

It has been wonderful over the last several days to see that there are some of you who appreciate poetry and support the endeavors of your Columbus, Ohio NPS team. Where would we be without you? IF YOU'D LIKE TO MAKE A DONATION to support Columbus, Ohio representation at the National Poetry Slam, you can do so at the team blog site. Just click here. And while you're there, feel free to leave a word of encouragement. We like that.

Preparations continue. We are practicing, working hard to finalize our funds base, and trying to breathe and keep at our day jobs at the same time. The days are full of new information: The teams for our preliminary bouts in Albuquerque have been chosen and this will be no cake walk. Nationals level competition never is. But we are YOUR Columbus nats team and we WILL take the heat to the microphone in the name of the Big C.

Not much time to go on here. Chapbook is very near beginning of production queue. Big surprise on the horizon as well, but I'll announce that when it becomes reality. In the meantime, I've got to work on my voice.... give her some lemon water or ginger tea (thanks, Jennifer), and see if I can perform without croaking--or squeaking . I listen to myself and geesh! How do people actually listen to my voice?! I want them to get past it to hear the words.

My little fingers are wearin' to the bone these days. There's a story behind that, but I'll save it for another time. For now... thank you, every single one of you who visits this page, whether you comment or not. I love you folks.

Frying in Nats Heat

(Note to visitors as you find my blog: I am allowing this post to stay on top for some time as we prepare for NPS 2005.)

National Poetry Slam. Why do some of us put ourselves through it?

Days of poetry and poetry events. Putting our hard wrought lines of words to the test of everyday listeners--some poets, some officionados of the art, others who just happened in and wondered what the crowd was doing. We travel halfway (and sometimes more) across the country, knowing we might get to read six minutes of poetry in actual mainstream competition if we're normal, nine minutes if we're lucky, and twelve if the heavens actually open--if we get to finals--and that I can't describe. If our poems are most useful to a cohesive team. If we have the right words to offer a listening audience at that moment. The moment of truth. The moment an emcee asks, Team Columbus, who you sendin' up? Or some other strange question meant only for crazies.

This is slam, and the energy and electricity are unmatched in any other literary activity of which I've ever been a part. There is a rich, exciting taste of words in the air, the heightened sense of 70 mile per hour criticism as your words fly by. As minds unaccustomed to poetry in performance become nets, looking for that big one... the one they totally get... the one that hits a familiar chord they'd forgotten how to play but still wanted to.

I suppose I can keep loving this. The getting ready. The qualifications. The contest of teams. Pushing my poetry beyond traditional limits. The challenge of getting a message through in spite of all the distractions. The belief that what you have to say is needed, and valid. Believing in your own found truth enough to stand and pronounce it to anyone and know, even if the scores absolutely suck, you've served your own truth well.

There is an energy here that is addicting. It's not about the game, or about winning, or about individual accomplishment. It's about the sharing of our poetically charged selves, meeting to extend a common voice to whatever world will listen, touching other lives, one poem at a time, instantly.

Yes. I suppose I can keep doing this. I just need to get to Albuquerque. Hundred degree weather and up to 80 teams of poets. I just have to learn not to sweat.

Nobody's perfect

Salon today was a day-long meeting of the minds of seven poets. A wide range of styles and sensibilities meeting in one room to share and react to each other poems. Share in each others success stories, embrace each other in the common sea of words at work, and critique each other in the process. I am told I should stop pulling on my clothes when I speak. That I knew... nobody's perfect. Everyone has a tick, and habit, a tendency. What makes you say ouch?

In Business Now

Chapbook submitted with the revisions. Hard choices. Will be ready soon, at least ready before Nationals. Title is firm: A Woman You Know.

Anybody want to order a copy now? I'll send it "hot off the presses" as soon as it's ready, probably two weeks or less.

Rose

Finally, Almost to Closure

Turned in a chapbook draft today. Jen took a quick look and didn't have any objections to the poems included or the order of the manuscript. I had it too long, though. Have to cull four pages somehow.

Back to the drawing board.

Rose

A Woman You Know

Still working on the chap for Pudding House. Really difficult choices to make here. Lots of poems I want in the book because they are the poems people ask me about when they buy the first chapbook.

Haven't thought of a title yet. Just hoping it will finally be a release that contains the things people I encounter most want to read. That means it will contain quite a few performance type poems (at least people tend to classify them as that). I just hope I can respond with a "Yes" when people ask whether the bathroom poem is in there, or Coming From.

Jennifer recommended I include one of the poems from my initial chapbook, which I've done. When I think about it, it probably is a good way to connect the two. Can't be Shooting the Strays, though, which Pudding Magazine first published. That's the title poem from the first book.

Now to finish up that manuscript and get on to the CD.

Rose