Poets Speak Loud!, April 30

Fresh from the poetic intensity of Split This Rock I was glad to be back at the poetry venues I am used to, among the poets I enjoy, hearing their poems, & back at McGeary’s on the last Monday with Mary Panza keeping it real, or thereabouts.

I was first up for the open mic & read my homage “Golden Shovel for Split This Rock,” then, still on the poetry theme, “Dot Dot Dot” (the ellipsis poem). Joe Krausman’s poems were inspired by what he read in the morning papers, “Sunny Side Up” & “Lawrence Pope” about a former bank president who became a bank robber. Bob Sharkey read about the fairies on “Surrey Hill,” then a poem, “Siege,” influenced by one submitted to the DiBiase Contest reading.

The next poet has been reading out as G. Douglas Davis IV but was introduced as we once knew him D. Alexander Holiday; his first poem was a series of questions allegedly put before Donald Trump before he was President, them a poem on the trial of Bill Crosby as a long letter, “Poem for Camille Following the Conviction.” Julie Lomoe’s poem “Jigsaw Puzzles” can be found online on her website. Robb Smith read one of his salacious grannie-porn stories, this about retirees partying at a casino.

The night’s featured poet was Melody Davis who began with her latest book One Ground Beetle: A Year in Haiku (Bad Cat Press, 2017), with prints by Harold Lohner. It was Show & Tell with Melody reading a haiku or two, then holding up the book to show the colorful print on the facing page. There were haiku on, of course, trees, clouds, birds, round stones, but also on Albany & on meetings. Then on to her 2013 collection of poems Holding the Curve (Broadstone Books), reading the ekphrastic “Caillebotte’s Laundry,” “Walter, the Lawyer,” the villanelle “It Only Starts,” & “Jasmine Boy, Cairo.” She finished up with a “new/old poem” about having hors d’oeuvres at the top of the World Trade Center, & a poem for a trapeze artist, “8 Different Ways to Fall.” A pleasant reading of richly varied poems.

Back to the open mic, stalwart Sylvia Barnard read John Keat’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to introduce her own poem based on a text from ancient Greek that she teaches, “The Owl on the Water Jug.” Shannon Shoemaker tried out a poem-in-progress (isn’t that what open mic are for?) “Straight Girl Blues.”

Annie Sauter read a couple of poems from a recent run of 30/30 (30 poems in 30 days), the first an alliterative hippie fantasy/portrait of a girl on a bus, then a poem about rain “Late Night in Central New York.” Next a trio of new readers, the first “virgin” Meghan who read a sad love story “Answers to the Question You Were Afraid to Ask.” Ava read a description of herself in images of food “Lemon Juice.”

Olivia read a short piece that could have been an response to Meghan's poem, “Questions I Wanted to Ask.” Sally Rhoades, no stranger to the local open mics, read a birthday poem “I Blew Out the Candles” a childhood memoir, then one about a memorial to World War II dead in the Netherlands. Karen Fabiane had also recently done a 30/30, read a poem to a musician friend “Wise Beyond Her Years,” & “Even This.” Tim Verhaegen read a story in progress, a sad autobiographical piece about the love of is life.

As so often happens when Poets Speak Loud! at McGeary’s on the last Monday of the month, a wonderful mixed bag of poets & poetry.

GOLDEN SHOVEL for SPLIT THIS ROCK 2008 to 2018 -- & Beyond

It’s Poems of Provocation & Witness Sarah & Melissa tells us, asks: Don’t

you want to join this poetic intervention in the public space? where you

sweat in morning yoga with Kazim, with Susan, with Yael the curly yogini, hear

poets you’ve only read, see poets you’ve never seen before, hear this

conscience of poetry Sister Sonia chant, I say Peace is my Hammer

poetry is a verb, Money’s not speech, Centos bounce off the pillars of power, ring

the bells of Congress, the White House, then love bombs I’m

dropping on Dupont Circle with Kelsey, John, Melissa, Martha, Katie & Sunu, gonna

be in 3 places at once to hear biker poets, professors, street poets, split

myself to hear Carolyn, Alice as if she were President, & share Naomi’s cookies, this

is how we leap from insight to the poem, how we buzzz with Tiffany’s bees, rock

with Regie wrapped in his boa, snap with the DC slam poets, and

worker poets, the poetic army of staff & volunteers, even poets who have split

to the beyond: June Jordan, Paul Weinman, Mahmoud Darwish, Jayne Cortez it

is always that there are more dead each year, gathered in words & photos wide

angle, close up from Jill in torn jeans & Kristen, & new tee-shirts when

we arrive from Susan, Jaime, I look for Greg, Sonja, mark my program & I

find old poets I never knew, new voices in print on stage, make River Flags, split

time for listening, find Nathaniel’s wall numbers, hear Martin say this

is a rant, because the title is long, these words meant not to rock

us to sleep but to shake us loose, disrupt Joe says, the old story, shout, stand

& applaud, hear Anne urge find projects to inspire, don’t be paralyzed by

the problem, Ocean: every poem a new beginning, Jennifer: my

whole life is a political poem — hammering with Langston by our side.

(The idea for this poem came at the 2016 Split This Rock from a workshop on the new poetic form invented by Terrance Hayes "golden shovel" & it was completed late in 2017.  The line of poetry which the end words form is from the Langston Hughes poem, "Big Buddy," from which the Split This Rock festival gets its name.)

Split This Rock, Part 8 — Saturday: Evening Reading, April 21

This was the final reading in this, again, fabulous festival of Poems of Provocation & Witness. Tonight’s hosts were Sarah Browning, who is stepping down as the Executive Director of Split This Rock, & Joseph Green, Director of Youth Programs, with Sarah doing a string of “thanks” & then paying tribute to the late Sam Hamill by playing a recording of him reading one of his poems (it was supposed to be “True Peace” but unexpectedly not, although that poem was read early in the festival at the tribute to the gone poets gathering).

The DC Youth Poet was Aniyah Smith who did a moving tribute to her Cuban grandmother, with some lines sung in Spanish, yet another stunning poem by a young poet in the DC Youth poetry program.

Keno Evol was the 2017 winner of the Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest, & he read his winning poem “on meeting a brother for the first time” on police violence & shootings in Chicago.

The first of the 3 featured readers was Paul Tran, resplendent in a white gown, who began with a family memoir “Elegy with My Mother’s Lipstick,” then read from a new series titled “Chrome,” which Paul introduced by saying “these poems are trash but thank you for being here,” poems about his Viet Namese family, a father who had molested them, trying to find a language for what we can’t describe. A poem about being at the Viet Nam memorial, “Facing My Reflection…” was inspired by a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. Paul also read again the poem printed in Poetry, “Scientific Method,” & ended with a poem using the myths of Eve & Philomena “Against Redemption.”

Not only did Ilya Kaminsky have handouts of the 2 poems he read but they were projected on a screen behind him which I preferred to read from so I could watch the poet at the same time. He explained that it was because of his heavy Russian accent. The first poem was “We Lived Happily During the War” the shorter of the two. Then on to “Music Humana” an elegy for the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, described as:

"A modern Orpheus: sent to hell, he never returned, while his widow searched across one sixth of the earth’s surface, clutching the saucepan with his songs rolled up inside, memorizing them by night in case they were found by Furies with a search warrant."

It is a long poem, the equivalent of 8 printed book pages, rich in images from history, Russian poets & politics, read in a singing/chant adding even more magic to the words.

To top off 10 years of Split This Rock, in a neat bit of symmetry, the last reader was Sister Sonia Sanchez, who had kicked off the 1st Split This Rock reading standing on a table at Bus Boys & Poets. She is a mesmerizing performer, not just of her poems but of her stories, fables, not a preacher, but an Elder sharing the wisdom of her lived-life, as she said as she began, “I put everything in our youth…” because they continue what we & others have done. Jazz infuses her work, as in the blues sermon “Belly, Buttocks, & Straight Spines” for the work of a New York City artist, & the scat singing of her “10 Haiku for Max Roach” (she takes Haiku to a new, urban level full of the history of Black America & nary a frog to be found). Then read from “Sister’s Voice,” a long poem in rime royale (of all possible forms) to tell the story of her family in the musical voice of ancestors, her brother’s voice, that of her father, her mother, filling in the narrative with summaries between sections of the poem.

D. Vera, R. Cabico, S. Scheid, S. Browning, J Green

But it was not quite over. At almost the moment I first arrived at this year’s Split This Rock I was accosted by Susan Scheid & was asked to write a short love letter to Sarah to present to her with others tonight. Sarah was surprised by not only some folks on the stage honoring her role in creating Split This Rock with Melissa Tuckey but others like myself leaping on stage from the audience to thank her. My poem was

Sarah, Sarah
you brought us
all together —
like words forever linked
in the silken weave
of poems.

After all this, all these days, there was a late-night 10th Anniversary Party, with DJ Mane Squeeze, & a cash bar, & I was still meeting new people I haven’t met before. But this old poet was so full of these 3 days I needed to get back to the streets of DC, let the memory of the words & spirit & images soak in.

It will be a long 2 years until the next Split This Rock!

Split This Rock, Part 7 — Saturday: Afternoon Reading, April 21

The final day of Split This Rock ended with 2 featured readings, one in the afternoon & one later in the evening, & each deserve their own report. The afternoon readings were hosted by Clint Smith & Franny Choi, whom I remember from her electric performance at STR 2016. To begin they played a recording of the late Adrienne Rich reading one of her poems, with the prophetic line, “everything we write will be used against us…”

The DC Youth Poet was Kenny Carroll who performed a love poem, a memory of a brother, “back when something was good…” a tender, moving performance.

The first of the featured poets was Terisa Siagatonu, a National Slam finalist, Slam coach & mental health advocate, who taught us the correct pronunciation of "Samoa."  She read her contrapuntal poem in three columns, “Moana Means Home,” printed in the Split This Rock section in the April Poetry magazine. “Congregation” was a discursive, narrative piece about an aunt who died, & her grandfather, then on to a couple of environmental poems (she had been at the Paris Climate Conference in defense of Samoa), “The Day After American Samoa Was Underwater” which had been a Split This Rock “Poem of the Week”, & another from Poetry “Atlas.” She finished up with a piece dedicated to the youth open mic poets, a poem using a phrase from Lucille Clifton, “I’m still alive...” as a repeated refrain.

Kazim Ali also began with a poem from Poetry, the opening section of “The Voice of Sheila Chandra” inspired by the singer who has lost her voice, then the autobiographical (many of his poems are “personal” or spring from incidents in his life), “Origin Story,” then “John,” “Drone,” & “Check Point” (at each of which he gives a different response, making the personal political). “Inquisition” used a sex memoir to delve into history & violence. His poem titled Yannis Ritsos was not just about the Greek poet, but also referenced Mahmoud Darwish & Fadi Joudah. He ended with a poem he had read earlier in the festival, “Golden Boy,” & hearing it again I could appreciate more the intricacies of the weaving lines & the puns.

I had seen Ellen Bass at couple of the panels that I attended earlier in the festival; another thing that I like about Split This Rock is that the “stars” are often in the audience of the different sessions. Her poems are like story telling, or essays. She began with “Taking Off the Front of the House,” a humorous take on the everyday where she & her partner are like on a stage in their own house. A poem “Indigo” for her daughter began with a description of jogger, then imagined an alternative life. “God’s Grief" was a litany, while “Bearing Witness” came out of her experience working with victims of child sexual abuse. She also read the 2 Langston Hughes poems titled “Island,” & ended with “Jubilato Homo” taking the form from Jonathan Swift to write about transgender folk.

While sufficient unto itself this reading also served as a prelude to the finale of the festival, the reading later in the evening. So I wandered off to find The Pig, a pork-themed restaurant, for a quiet dinner.

Split This Rock, Part 6 — Saturday: Book Fair & Panel, April 21

When I arrived back at the National Housing Center Atrium this morning the Split This Rock Social Change Book Fair was in progress, 20 plus small presses were tabling. The last thing I need is more (unread) books on my coffee table, night stand, the table next to my reading chair, my dresser, you get the point. But as Oscar Wilde famously said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it” — I picked up a couple of free-bees, bought an edgy zine from Melanationzine.com, &  books by Dan Vera & Sister Sonia from the Busboys & Poets store. Saw Albany poet Dawn Marar struggling with the same book-addiction demons.

Then I zeroed in on the panel/reading/discussion Poet’s Forum: How Political Engagement Affects the Writing Process, presented in partnership with the Poetry Foundation & Poetry magazine. As I think I already said, I had read received & read the April Poetry magazine with its special Split This Rock section before coming to the Festival & was looking forward to hearing the poets read their work & to listening to them talk about it. The panel, held at the Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives Memorial Hall, was moderated by the ever-present (& ever-lovely) Sarah Browning & by Lindsay Garbutt from Poetry magazine. Some of the poets I had already heard read & some I would see & hear again — it was like a gathering of the tribe, including the audience in that term.

Sherwin Bitsui read the selections from Dissolve that were printed in Poetry, rich images glistening from the natural world with “Scalp blood” & “pierced cloud” “crackling in the past tense.”

Sharon Olds read the very NYC “Poem Which Talks Back to Itself” (for Etan Paltz), & “How It Felt” looking back to being 12 years old, both from Poetry.

Paul Tran was certainly the most colorfully dressed, in a bright red dress with black lace trim; they read from Poetry the poem “Scientific Method,” written in the voice of a laboratory monkey.

I remember Sister Sonia Sanchez in a red beret starting off the 1st Split This Rock reading from a table top at Busboys & Poets, & 10 years later her energy was just as inspiring, reading her “Haiku & Tanka for Harriet Tubman” from the April Poetry, using the printed text like chord changes for a jazz tune, repeating lines, titles, singing, clicking & popping — when I grow up I want to read like her.

What followed was a lively back & forth with the panelists, moderated by Lindsay Garbutt, Associate Editor of Poetry, who asked about the politics in the poems coming in to the family thru the mothers. Paul talked about using English as a weapon. Sister Sonia commented that she never knew her mother, that she was raised by her grandmother in Alabama.

Sarah remarked that History is very recent. Sister Sonia said people do change, as time goes on, we do move forward.

Sharon talked about learning about rhythm & dance from inside the mother.

I was most comforted by Sister Sonia’s reply to a question from the audience about struggling to write, that we’re always writing, it’s just not always on paper (I often talk about my writing process being one of composting, or percolating, until the words burst forth on the page).

I was struck by the serious tone of the conversation, but a tone different from the discussion of academics & the vaunting of the role of the “Poet,” here the seriousness was about the issues & the work before us, so very Split This Rock.

Split This Rock, Part 5 — Friday Featured Reading, April 20

Back in the National Housing Center Auditorium for the night’s featured reading, with the co-hosts Sarah Browning & Katie Richey who is the host of the Split This Rock regular series Sunday Kind of Love. The reading began with a recording of gone poet Galway Kinnell reading his poem “St. Francis & the Sow.” & again a one of the DC Youth Poets set the fire under the audience, Mary Camara with an autobiographical “History Thru the Grades.” What a thrill it must be for these young poets to have their moment on the stage with this audience of activists & poets.

Again, all the featured poets were featured in the April Poetry magazine special section on Split This Rock. The first to read was Solmaz Sharif who began with the title poem from her 2016 Greywolf Press book LOOK, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, on military drones & naming, then another on war & death “Defender’s Immediate Family.” My favorite one she read was titled “Social Skills Training” which dealt with how we modify our behavior in the face of power, a similar poem was a conversation with a psychologist on violence & our reactions to it, & her poem from Poetry, “The Master’s House,” was another on the theme of power & violence.

Sherwin Bitsui had read at the NYS Writers Institute back in February 2016, where I was first introduced to his work.  He writes long poems, steeped in his native culture (he is Diné of the Tódi’chii’nii clan & is born for the Tlizillani’ clan). He began with an introduction in his native language, then a long, descriptive section from Flood Song (Copper Canyon). Then he read from a new work, Dissolve, coming out in October, another long piece, richly descriptive, with vivid, sometimes surreal images, including the marvelous phrase “to window the past … to door the future.” The poems were deeply connected to his family, his ancestors & the land upon which they live(d).

Elizabeth Avecedo, from NYC, had been the coach of the Split This Rock DC Youth Slam team in the past, & a National Slam Champion. As a result she was the most performative of the night’s readers. Her pieces were fiercely political, often drawing inspiration from pop culture, such as the poem titled “Self-Portrait of Eve as Cardi B.” or “One-Sided Conversation with Sosa” (as in the major league right fielder Sammy Sosa). Other social-justice themed poems were “Rat Ode,” “Iron” (on the bullet in a shooting), & a poem about teaching creative writing at a detention center. She is also the author of a young adult novel in verse The Poet X (Harper Collins, 2018) from which she read excerpts.

Kwame Dawes was the senior member of tonight’s reading, a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, editor at Prairie Schooner, author of over 30 books. He read in his marvelous deep, accented voice, a series of poems with similar titles, “Sometimes…” as in “Sometimes Prophesy,” “Sometimes a Poem,” (the one exception being “Crossroads” which was a response to August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Fences).  He continued with “Sometimes Death,” “Sometimes Reparations” (violence), “What God Says Sometimes Mercy” in the wife’s voice), “Sometimes Revelation” (a lynching), & for his wife “Sometimes Love.”

While these readings are part of the Festival, they are also free & open to the public -- what a great gift of poetry to the DC community from Split This Rock.

Split This Rock — Friday Panels, April 20

Back to the National Housing Center Auditorium for a panel titled Don’t You Hear This Hammer Ring? Stories from Split This Rock’s Founding, with Sarah Browning, Melissa Tuckey, Regie Cabico & moderated by Tope Folarin. Fortunately, this session was videotaped, because you can’t rely on me for a full report, I was so enthralled to hear these folks talk. Also there is a brief, informative summary of the history of Split This Rock in the program. Regarding the origins of STR in 2006, it says,

DC-area poet-activists — led by Sarah Browning, Melissa Tuckey, and Regie Cabico from DC Poets Against the War & Sol y Soul — began to imagine a national gathering, based in part on the overwhelming response from poets to calls for participation in national anti-war marches. They formed a festival coordinating committee, chose the date for the event — to coincide with the 5th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in March 2008 — & found the name “Split This Rock” in the poem “Big Buddy” by Langston Hughes.

Organizing continued into 2007, including publicizing the upcoming festival at the AWP conference that year. Sarah noted that every poet they invited to feature at the inaugural 2008 festival said yes, 26 poets were featured, at a point where they had no money yet, & even a month before the start there were no venues. Over 250 poets & activists attended the festival in March 2008. The response was so positive that planning was started for a 2nd festival, as well as broadening the organization to one dedicated to the promotion of social justice poetry, not just the festivals. Sarah noted that Adrienne Rich was one of the poets invited to feature at the 2008 festival, but she was unable to attend. However, she made a generous donation to STR & threw her support behind it.

Each of the panelists also made a short list of poets who have inspired them in this project, & read a poem, admitting, as to be expected, that there was a lot of cross-over of their inspirations. Sarah mentioned Martin Espada, Lucille Clifton, & Sam Hamill, & read Naomi Shihab Nye’s “A Dictionary in the Dark.” Melissa’s poets were June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, & Lucille Clifton, & read Clifton’s “Blessing the Boats.” Regie talked about Essex Hemphill, his poem “American Wedding,” Sandra Cisneros, & read Joy Harjo’s “Don’t Bother the Earth Spirit.”

As a result of the Split This Rock festival I eventually brought both Sarah Browning & Melissa Tuckey to Albany for Poets in the Park, & met other wonderful poets, such as Karen Skolfield who read twice in Albany, Susan Brennan who also read, & more that I will try to get here in the future. & the festival has constantly reinforced my commitment to both the art of poetry & the necessity of activism.

Poetry of Praise: Reclaiming Religion and Spirituality for the Resistance was a panel held at the Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives Memorial Hall on 17th St. I chose this over others mainly because I like to think of myself as a spiritual, yet anti-religious, person (as a “Buddhist Anarchist Church-burner” as I’ve been wont to say).

Sunu P. Chandy

Ayari Aguayo-Ceribo served as moderator as well as participant, & explained that each of the participants were invited to write a new poem for this panel. She began with 2 poems, “Prison” about taking down the (various) systems of oppression, then another “We pray to you…” mixing Spanish & English.

Kazim Ali read his poem “Golden Boy” & talked about growing up in a remote Canadian town, being smart, & different.

Rose Berger

Rose Berger referenced both Ovid & the Psalms in her poem “On the phone with My Mother Saturday Morning.” Sunu Chandry’s gentle poem brought together walking in New York City & a woman at a yoga center with the memory of a childhood trip to India. Letta Neely began with a singing a spiritual then into an angry poem proclaiming “We who believe in Freedom cannot rest.” Temin Fruchter read “Prayer for Growing Closer” & “Prayer After Going to Poland.” Marie Varghese told the story of her family founding an Indian Christian church in New York City & read “Sunday Confessionals.”

Temin Fruchter

These stories & poems were often about the conflict between the family religions that the poets grew up in, & that they often still value, & their own emerging sexual/gender identity, in the constant conflict between established religions & the individual’s spirituality not bound by any one set of religious beliefs.

Letta Neely, Marie Varghese, Kazim Ali

In the questions that followed, Kazim Ali commented that we’re all inventing our ancestry, especially for the LGBTQ community. This was also brought out by the poems by others that these poets read, including Ayari Aguayo-Ceribo reading a long celebration by a friend about being queer, Marie Varghese’s list poem by her sister, & others, including poems by Fanny Howe, Joy Harjo, Alice Walker, Adrienne Rich, & Naomi Shihab Nye.

While I anticipated enjoying this panel discussion I was pleased with the unexpected directions to which the poems & conversation took me, & the cultural/spiritual diversity in which this took place. I guess this is why I keep coming back to this festival.