Confessions of a Human Nerve Ending

Greetings from the Democratic National Convention from my hometown, Denver, Colorado. No... I don't call Denver home anymore, but I did graduate from high school and college here so I have an affinity for the place that goes beyond being just another big American city. I mean, this is where I read poetry for the first time, got my first blowjob, was thrown threw a car window, and discovered I was a good writer. But seriously, I had absolutely no desire to deal w/ parking here, so I parked my car at 74th and Colorado and biked in. Not a bad ride had I not missed the turn and ended up nearly to Golden before turning around. I was short on water by the time I passed the Metropolitan Area Wastewater Treatment plant and begin composing some sort of rant about the relative joys of actually riding next the entire load of shit a city of 2 million plus dumps in a river while I slowly die of thirst. I'm so dramatic at times. But I was thankful when a water fountain appeared at t...

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Continuing in the tradition, I am posting from the third floor in Kim Nuzzo's townhouse in Aspen. I scheduled to read at Zele's Cafe this evening. I drove up from ABQ, 7 quick hours due north and right into the heart of the mountains, culminating with this spectacular climb up Independence pass. I hang out with Kim, meet his wife and daughter, and go watch the tail end of a little league hockey game. I've never been to a hockey game and it was entertaining as hell. Fast paced, crazy reckless, "where did they learn to skate like that at 12 years old." But, thinking checking out the Scorps (our minor league hockey game) may be worth some time. Kim was there supporting a friend's son. Kim, who I met last March at the Colorado Performance Poetry Festival (Sparrows) is certainly one of the nicest people I've ever met. Unpretentious, a great listener (in fact I did most of the talking-no surprise here). Aspen, Colorado, Stunning, beautiful, typical Colorad...

Flew in yesterday for the 2007 EC Retreat: Henry, Steve, Maria, Delrica, Rachel, Scott, Erik, and Bob getting together to talk slam. Watched some archival video from the early years, slam circa 1987 & 91. Henry had transferred some early footage. Watched Lisa Buscani versus Patricia Smith. It was great.

So, after Dallas, I pretty much didn't post. Funny thing about NPS. I got so damn busy, that I just didn't have time. And now, roughly a month later, I'm rested. It used to be, that after NPS it would take about two months before anybody would do any real poetry stuff. Sure, we'd have our regular shows, but rarely would we send out press releases, go to other readings, make flyers, etc. But its a testament to how integrated poetry is in our daily lives, that now we just fire up again. Of course, the Blue Dragon closing in July didn't help much because we had to replace those venues, which we did. A few of things I'm thinking about. 1. I've been struggling with writing an "identity" piece. The idea is good, but the story if I don't rhyme it is so prosaic yet if I rhyme it I struggle to come up with good rhymes. I need to write more because I feel "rusty" and it is showing in this poem. Will post when I think it is finished, wh...

Well, we're here, Austin, Texas. After getting everybody into the van we set out Saturday night for Dallas, TX to participate in the 2007 DIPS (Dallas Invitational Poetry Slam). Honestly, I think the drive was a bit hard on everybody. Don't sleep much in the car, sleep even less when you finally get into the hotel, and then we have to perform. The script was pretty much set. Manny does "Mental Revolutionary," Jessica, Manny, and Jerry perform Jess' poem, "Apathy" as a group piece, and Jerry does "Pinche Huda." Here's some pictures taken by Sondra Beamon ( www.sbfreelance.com ) Manuel Gonzales And here's the group poem: And here's Jerry: Thanks Sondra! Well, things didn't turn out so well. Manny was a little flat, the group poem was a struggle (people flat in delivery and missing lines), and Jerry, actually left out a whole section of his poem. Admittedly, it was the first time that they performed the group piece together. Bu...

Once again, no pictures from the actual event. Boy, I wish my body would allow me to sleep past 8 AM. Cause two days of staying up till 4 AM, is really taking its toll. Spiritually, I'm feeling re-charged, reinvigorated that what we do is important and matters. Thursday night, after doing the draw I knew that the Four Corners, Austin, Dallas, and Denver bout was going to be crushing. Teams had traveled from a long ways and here's a bout where 3 teams would be sitting down that all legitimately belonged on the finals stage. The weather was perfect, after a rain that afternoon the evening cooled down into the 80's and the teams stepped up to the microphones on the patio. About 150 people sat nervously drinking beers. A couple of dozen sat outside on the mall, listening in from behind the poet's back and hanging off the patio rail at the other venue (which hadn't started yet). Tony Jackson steps up and does this killer piece (that at the risk of not mischaracteriz...