I took part in the Fifth Annual Dada Poetry Salon at Cornelia Street Cafe last night! What a delight! Imagine, grown adults being silly and surreal, sharing rhyme and unreason, playing and making utter nonsense of it all. I chortled in my joy before, during and after. Plus, I’m enjoying my copy of Maintenant 6 (published by Three Rooms Press)!
Vive le Dada!
runneth quickly away, and I still have one or two things to say!
April and I have been frightfully busy this month, what with participating in the Artists Summer Institute given by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Creative Capital towards the beginning, April singing her final (until proven otherwise) concert at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in the middle, and April presenting her talk on operas composed by women in Hudson, NY just this past Saturday. Why, it’s just been a whirlwind of Activi-Tea! Thankfully, some Sereni-Tea and Joculari-Tea were to be had at Live Mag!‘s Memorial Day BBQ! Well done, Jeff Wright and friends, well done, I say!
You know that you’re destined to be a poet when a line from a poem long-forgotten haunts you for over a decade, demanding to be incorporated anew into a sonnet.
Read, listen and enjoy, but as always, beware the siren call of the sonnet!
*******
Whenever I think that I might write a sonnet,
the urge overcomes me to go sleep upon it.
The mere thought of writing in that wretched form
must be from the depths of insanity born.
Yet pen to paper is drawn against my will;
I hope it’s for good; I fear ‘tis for ill.
But what, pray tell me, is one wont to do
in such a position, except perhaps rue
the day that she ever did read Oscar Wilde,
or Keats, Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare besides?
There is no cure for it–not one that I’ve found.
Learn from my misfortune, dear reader. Sound
the alarm bells, yea, and steadfastly shun it
should forces compel you thus to write a sonnet!
The audio version can be heard in one of the March 2012 posts, but I know that there are those who would like to see it in print. And here it is. Enjoy!
Oh, I’d love to figure out how to make ends meet. . .
They won’t even say “hi” when passing in the street!
Perhaps I can trick them, and spring a little trap.
They’ll go about as normal, and then you’ll hear a ‘snap!’
And there our two ends will be, and there they shall stay
‘til I go and pick them up. Then I’ll find a way
to bring them together and make their meeting stick
(without one or the other or me getting sick).
Maybe some glue, however, if it got too damp
I’d need something stronger, like a big, metal clamp.
I could bind them with fine Corinthian leather!
That’ll surely hold them in all sorts of weather.
However it’s accomplished, I’ll brook no defeat
in my quest to find the best way to make ends meet!
Come one, come all to the Waltz Astoria tonight for the Boundless Tales Poetry Reading Series! The festivities start at 8pm, and I will be the first of the featured readers. $10 drink minimum. More about Boundless Tales at http://www.boundlesstales.blogspot.com/.
The Waltz Astoria is located a short walk from the N or W train at 23-14 Ditmars Blvd. Astoria, NY. More information at www.Waltz-Astoria.com.
I hope to see you there!
Happy New Year to one and all! Your interest in my work has been most gratifying, and I hope that we shall continue to revel in the world of wordplay for many years to come.
To celebrate the New Year, I have posted a new Madisonnet video: Time is done with flying. You may see it here:
Enjoy, and if you like what you see, then by all means “Like” what you see!
Warren-Tea: a brew consumed by rabbits at home.
Or perhaps I should say “our” first meeting, since both April and I attended our first Lewis Carroll Society of North America meeting this past Saturday, September 29. All of the talks were delightful and illuminating–literally so in the case of a newly-discovered 1928 version of Through the Looking Glass. With its mix of academics, artists, collectors and aficionados, it was the most unpretentious scholarly event we’ve attended in some time. It was most certainly a frabjous day!
Come and have a look at the Whimsical Things now available in The Peculiari-Tea Shop (right up there, under the page that says, oddly enough, “The Peculiari-Tea Shop”)!
I’m spending this week applying for several of the opportunities I discovered whilst perusing the holdings of the Foundation Center’s library a few weeks ago. So many opportunities, so little time! Hmm, I must have a discussion with Time about this. Perhaps he can make more of himself. . .
Soon to be available as a postcard from April + Madison.
For those of you following along at home, I am happy to announce that I now have a YouTube Channel. Please do have a look and leave a comment or two! And feel free to pass it along to others.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3JsFyhh6YsaHrhRA6g-sXQ
Enjoy!
You have probably heard of the “I AM” meditations, where one repeats phrases such a “I am peace” in order to achieve a more centered state of being. Well, I have my own version that I thought I would share. It helps one achieve a more poetic frame of mind. Just repeat these phrases whenever you feel inspired to do so:
I am joy.
I am love.
Iambic pentameter. . .
Callooh! Callay! Yet another reason to celebrate on the Fourth of July!
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Turns 150.
