XVII

man oh man. this has been such a stttttrrrange year.
it finally feels like it's taking a genuine up-swing, though.
i love being busy & making plans that work out or not planning, but being prepared & letting the night take me where it will.
i haven't written much poetry-wise in a little while, i think.
lemme check... yep. last one was a very bitter poem about romance.

on saturday night, among everything else that happened that day/night, I read one of my poems at Student Works. A large number of students and their parents, along with some members of faculty, attended. It was a bit terrifying, especially since the audience looked like a black void I was talking to.

Here's the poem I read:

July 10, 2008
wanna see

The Northern Lights
ground of green
The Emerald City in the Sky
The Aegean Sea
ruins of civilization
Alexandria of old
Zeus' scattered islands
The Fall of Rome
rose unto Catholic Empire
The Boroughs of London
The Boroughs of New York
The Cramped Housing
of New Delhi
Tokyo
Paris
Madrid
Rio de Janiero
The Spires of Communist Russia
The Shame of Germany
rebuilt Berlin
broken walls
smoldering Hamburg & Dresden
The Endless Sahara
the tombs it engulfs
The Busy Bustling Markets
of regenerated
& rejoicing Rwanda
Sudan
Kenya
Uganda
The Radiant not Irradiated
Bikini Islands
The Lush Unpoliced Mountains
of Free Tibet
The Gigantic Straw Goat
of Stockholm
up in flames again
The Lit Legal Cigar in my hands
before going to one of
the doctors on every Cuban corner
to be diagnosed with lung cancer
The New Knights of the Round Table
currently including
Sir Elton John
Sir Sean Connery
Sir Paul McCartney
The Vaults of the Swiss Bank
The Giggling Cafes of Amsterdam
The Unplundered Incan Home
The Palace of Blood and Bone
The Real Mount Doom
Mines of Moria
vast lands of Minos Tirith
The Pass Through Which
Hannibal hopes to
take elephants
The Beaches of Gun Shells
Oceans of the Ancients
avoiding the tourist traps
of postcards & t-shirts