I’m an aspiring waiter. I work as a writer.

Being a waiter pays crap, so I have to write poems to make ends meet.

In fact, I spend a lot of time writing poems just so I’ll have a little time to wait tables. You know how it is.  I know I’m not the only one.

I hate writing but it pays the rent. I just wish it didn’t take so much time, and wear me out so much.

I was born to be a waiter. It’s in my blood. I have the gift.

On a good day, writing poems is something I can do with half my attention, while reserving the best of myself for thinking about waiting.
On a bad day, I feel like a slave, tending to impatient and demanding poems.

On a good day, I have enough energy to do my poetry job and then maybe a little energy left to do my waiting.
On a bad day, I’m tired at work, and exhausted at home, and it’s all I can do to watch a movie or catch up on correspondence.

I’ve attended lots of waiting workshops. Depending on my finances, I’ll be able to attend another one this summer. Some of the big names will be there, and I really want to meet them and show them my stuff and get their feedback.

When I was a kid, I was always waiting. I enjoyed it.
Waiting took me to new places. My parents encouraged it.
My friends were kind of jealous of my talent.
My teachers showed interest in my work.

I don’t want to let them down now.

I don’t want to quit and just become another statistic—another failed waiter.

artist. track. cd title.   label

allen ginsberg. howl. howl and other poems. fantasy jazz.

corinna bain. open letter to the moon. new high score. wordsmith press

ed garcia. eye of the dreamer. urbana 2002. wordsmith press

maggie estep. how to get free hamburgers. love is a dog from hell. mercury

mahogany brown. sheroshima. mp3.

sean mcnally. the plane goes down. Grand Slam! best of national poetry slam v1. NuYo records

sonya renee. thick girl. thick girl.

Music
terry riley. a rainbow in curved air. a rainbow in curved air. cbs

]]> http://wordsalad.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/playlist-17-july/feed/ paul http://wordsalad.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/update-madison-poetry-slam-national-competition/ http://wordsalad.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/update-madison-poetry-slam-national-competition/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:49:56 +0000 paul http://wordsalad.wordpress.com/?p=303

The National Slam Poetry championships are coming to Madison Aug. 6-8.

check out these teams!

This week’s Wordsalad will offer samples from previous years’ slam competitions and will set them in the context of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. I will air a 1959 reading recorded in Chicago.

the job of the teacher is to pass the baton.

[ P.S.S. this is a repost]
(P.S.: I use the phrase “contemporary” to avoid being dated by using such terms as “post modern” and “avant-garde.” Contemporary, in my mind, means “whomever is alive now and writing.”)

If you’re a student of postmodern poetics or psycholinguistics, I post this note to save you some trouble, and to ask for a favor.

You’re a writer, a poet, or a student of language. You realize that contemporary poetry and poetics bear at least *some* resemblance to the speech of people who are institutionalized. I consider our friends who are institutionalized a rich trove of linguistic treasure that is ripe for appreciation, meditation, and analysis, and the study of which lies within ethical boundaries to boot.

But good luck finding transcriptions of schizophrenic speech online, or in print media, for that matter. Human subjects guidelines posted by federal funding agencies virtually guarantee that the raw content of interest to you is *absolutely and irrevocably inaccessible*. Trust me. I have tried.

But based on my (limited) experience, you will find a trove of data in articles about aphasia. I have had limited success (akin to the Bush/Cheney administration’s limited success in Iraq and Afghanistan [and where the f*** is Osama Bin Laden, BTW??]) in finding transcriptions of aphasic speech in print media, at least. The data I have been able to find has *enriched* my understanding of contemporary writing.

I humbly issue a call for submissions of data, summaries, abstracts, links, purged emails, conference papers, audio recordings, or papers, from linguists, psycholinguists, students of poetics, psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists. What data can you share that demonstrates a robust link between contemporary poetry and the thought patterns of our friends who are institutionalized?

Noam Chomsky, Marjorie Perloff, Bruce Andrews, Leslie Scalapino, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Raworth, students of J.H. Prynne and our Ur-Poet EarthMother goddess Gertrude Stein: please share your insights, so that those of us who love language and fear not to tread its outer boundaries, may succeed in our continuing development.

Dissertation topic, anyone?

artist. title. album. label

allen ginsberg. stanzas written at night in radio city. the lion for real. mouth almighty

ani di franco. drum groove. interview. righteous babe

charles bukowski. the shoelace. reads his poetry. fantasy

daphne gottlieb. tips for girls. slamerica live from moxie’s. wordsmith

el guante. fortune. vanishing point. el guante

gina loring. one race. freedom to speak natl. slam 2002. poetryslam com

jenifer wightman. seeping. freedom to speak natl. slam 2002. poetryslam com

maggie estep. jenny’s shirt. love is a dog from hell. mouth almighty

michael cirelli. vinyl. berzerkeley slam. whole enchilada

nazelah jamison. my love. berzerkeley slam. whole enchilada

piece. truth seerum. slamerica live from moxies. wordsmith

sekou tha misfit. the lesson. afrodeezyackz. blind faith

urknee & bjurton. child & claude. live at AV Sound space. private recording

Music
steve roach & vidna oobmana. revealing the secret. ascension of shadow. projekt

Madrid

Overture Center, Madison, Wis.

Orpheum Theater, Madison, Wis.

Artist. Track. CD title. Label

aya de leon. the down low. joy in the struggle. ayadeleon com

caroline bergvall. hosts tale; kruppe. conceptual poetry conference. U of Arizona

christie taylor. prizefight. wsum reading. private recording

corbet dean. wandering words. a collection of crime scenes. corbetdean com

el guante. we could live easy. vanishing point.

jennifer moxley. the railing. poetic brooklyn. pennsound

john bloomberg-rissman. 3 recent sonnets; six sonnets. sampler disc. private recording

larissa shmailo. skin. exorcism. songcrew

queen sheba. hate crimes; hello mama africa. i confess.

sekou tha misfit. aspyxiation fetish. afrodeezyackz. blindfaithrecords.com

taalam acey. obvious 2 U. underground heavy. taalamacey com

taylor mali. when does the human heart rest. icarus airlines. words worth ink

Music
steve roach & vidna obmana. the memory pool. ascension of shadows. projekt