Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

Poetry is a way of seeing the world. Would love to get some new poetic views from yous. Here's a quick e-poem of mine from this morning.

American Perspective
from an Economic Refugee

on the road
the roots cut
the story untold
the glory nowhere to
be found around
the world a refugee
economic political
hypocritical who
cares unaware of
cold and peanut butter
sandwiches three times
a day we had slept
night after night in
our own bed

Next post from the road. Jude

On the Road Again

"On the road again," I sing to myself stuck in L.A. traffic today, millions on the road and me planning a garage sale for the day after the turkey slaughter to put pennies in my pocket and somehow make the car payment. Haven't worked in so long don't know what a pay check looks like any more. I am definately no longer a full time writer, I'm a full time loser, but hey I'm in good company, half of the people I know can't figure out how to live and pay their regular bills in America today. Who are those people who are in a good economy? Maybe it's just that so many people I know are poets??? No, I think it's more widespread than that.

Ads for what you can buy in a store are an insult when you can't pay the rent. People talk about the latest movies, but it's been months since you could afford the ticket. You look everyday, sometimes get a great interview, wait six weeks and finally end up begging the interviewer to tell you if you have the job or not, which he does. A polite, we offered the job to someone else. It's America, coming now to the vast once middle class.

So anyway, we're sellling out, going north to family to regroup, find a way out of this black hole. This subject's not very poetic, but it's real. News yesterday said 15% of N.Y. City residents can't pay their bills or buy enough food. Let's see, the population of N.Y. is around 8 million. That's 1 million 200 thousand people who can't meet their basic needs. What is happening to the richest nation in the world?
I'll be thinking about that in the next few weeks on the road, sold out, wondering what's next.

Sparrows 2007

We have some great poets coming for Sparrows 2007. Kory Ford who has posted on this blog, Jim Tipton whose picture is here on the side and a host of others. Keep checking. It's going to be a great year for poetry. Just got back from a trip to Colorado and great meeting with the board. We have finished submitting two grants to help us finance some wonderful improvements. Don't miss it. Mark your calanders for March 1-4, 2007. Here's a picture of Kory Ford.

Poet Hunger

Days go by and I don't write one poem or get poetry in my Inbox. Then one morning I wake up starving. After a few minutes to come completely awake, I know! I'm craving poetry. It's a hunger for what is real, for beauty and concrete images. Talking to motel owners, writing grants and working at board meetings is challenging and sometimes even rewarding, but it does nothing for the growling belly that wants only poetry. Last year I challenged two other poets to write a poem a day for 30 days. We actually did it twice, so that for two months we were satiated. I speak Brazilian Portuguese and we have a word that literally translates as FULL, but the real meaning is the kind of satisfaction that is sexual fulfillment. Reading a poem is sometimes like that. Let poetry and justice roll down like a river.