Poetry Day 2014 (two found poems) ...

Got to play author for a day - just a room full of AP English students and me.

{to video: 6 min.}

* Period 0 *

What are the positive and the negative aspects of it?

       If you weigh the pros and the cons,

                    I'd say that language is just as bad as it is good.

How do you use your poetry to create

a lasting impact beyond your lifetime?

      'What do you care about; what are you looking for in life; what is your moral foundation?'

              'Give me an example; give me some specific concrete detail.'

                                     I love doing that, and it's good for people.

                                  So my poetry, I think of it as like calls-to-action –

                                     I don't want to be the reason that somebody sits in a hole

                                                           reading a book for their entire life.

Do you plan on having children, and if so,

are there any scruples that you plan to instill in them?

          As far as scruples – empathize.

       Listen to people, understand where they're coming from.

    Put your head in other peoples' heads;

   put your head in animals' heads; put your head in everything's head:

    put your head in your sandwich's head and realize that your sandwich wouldn't want you to scarf it; 

           your sandwich would want you to savor it. … 

                               you will be living your life as a good person, 

                                     because you will be treating everything as precious. 

                                                                    And everything is precious.

How do you stay grounded?

          The things that make you afraid? 

                            Go and touch them – in safe, controlled ways.

   The things that you like too much? 

     Learn how to control that – sometimes you've just got to eat;

                    if you're like, “Aah, I'm so afraid of getting fat,”

go and binge until the point where you can't stand up

and be like, “Maybe I don't like food so much,”

and then eat a salad and enjoy it …

  learn to attach positive emotions

      to the things 

         you know 

                 are good 

                            in life.

{to video: 14 min.}

 

* Period 1 *

A lot of people say that you're not really an artist

until you have an audience to show your art to?

     Anybody who cares about being a real artist isn't a real artist –

       it's like, 'I'm a skater. And I wear skater clothes.' 

                                      No you're not; you are an actor.

      Anybody who says, 'This is what I am,' is an actor.

      So the reason to put your art out there is not to be an artist;

              the reason to put our art out there is because you like your art

enough that you want it to be the best art it can be –

                        and you don't have enough time in your life to figure it out on your own.

                 Other people can help you.

                                                           Cool? 

                                   Don't be scared;

                                           everything is drafts.

I was just wondering – what your favorite sense was?

     I don't – I don't want to hurt any of my sense's feelings.

                              'Cause they're all feelings;

                                    that's all they have.

Do you ever notice what you notice in the world as a writer?

I read something once about how writers notice different things...

     I feel like there's a distance that some

                      self-affected writers –I AM THE WRITER–

                                      those people, they step back and they're like,

                           'What's the next thing I'm gonna write about/OOH, you look like

                                                                 a good character {suck,suck,suck}

                                                             OH, what are you doing now?

                         Oh, I bet you- I bet you're thinking about your

                                      grandma, and/Ohhh {scribble,scribble,scribble} ... ,'

        But at some point–LIVE YOUR LIFE– you're

 like, 'Shit! I've been watching people so much,

I haven't been living my own life.'

     And so I feel like, the best way, to absorb those things

                       is through the path of empathy: you look at people

                                and you try to put yourself inside them –

                                                  not as a literary or a rational exercise,

                                                                             but just to feel it.

                    Just because you're like, 

                             '{leans back, smiling} I wonder

                                                                what it's like to be you. Aw...'

                       Curiosity, right?

         Like, 'What did all five of my senses just go through?'

    that's a rewarding experience as a human being.

                                                            Not as a writer.

                                      So –writer-schmiter–

                everybody should do that.