FOUND POEM: High School Writers, 7AM ...

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Recently, I got to play 'Meet-the-Author' at Mira Costa HS, with a group of AP English students who've been reading my blog. This was my fourth time, talking shop with Alan's classes. These conversations always go dependably in directions I do not expect, pulling words out of me that I hardly recognize as my own: brilliant young minds, like an airy stack of leaves, igniting a damp log. This was a good morning. – 2017 March 31

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 1 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

“What do you do when you get stuck—

like writer's block? Do you ever?”

Oh, yeah: Anybody who wants to say something and is not ready—

It's the Five-year-old Frustration Phenomenon: like—

“I really have something to say!

And I do not have the tools to communicate it right now.”

My advice for writer's block is:

Get out of your head, get into your body.

If you do yoga, do yoga;

if you like hikes, get out into nature;

I went out for a barefoot walk at 11:30 at night

and found a tree that looked really lonely,

and just hugged it for a while (

trees need love to).

And THAAAT—that centering—

that time when you fall into silence and just work:

you listen to your breath,

you realize that you are this miraculous pulsing thing...

Get into that for a while,

and your “writer's block” will disappear.

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 2 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

“What's your favorite media to consume?”

Music? Simon and Garfunkle—

lyrics are really important to me;

that ruins a lot of music for me.

Clubs are, hellish for me:

you walk in, it's like—

“Mm-ch / Mm-ch / Mm-ch /

Shots! Shots! Shots! Everybooodyyy!!'

Oh.

Couldn't you have at least listed

three types of shots?

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 3 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

“I guess my question is just like, Humor?

Because I feel like most people who are first trying to get out in the creative path, are trying to be very think-y and are very isolated and, trying to be Serious?”

Yeah. I wish I were funnier.

I think the Dalai Lama is hilarious; that's sort of my bar.

If at some point I can get to the point

where I'm just spontaneously laughing at things,

and making other people laugh—because they're happy—

that would be great.

Humor is a really important educational tool;

it's a test of the synchrony between you and your audience:

You can be serious, and

if somebody doesn't get your idea,

you can be like,

“Ooh! Yeah! I'm too good for you, blabla-Bla-bla-bla'”—

But if you make a joke and no one laughs at it?

You can't say,

“Well, that's because I'm too funny.”

[laughter]

No! It's because your joke sucked.

So—that's the next stage, for me.

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 4 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

“What do you believe happens after death?”

Well, I think about that the same way I think about vegetarianism;

that these dividing lines that people put between

life, and death, and me, and you,

are—to a certain extent—fictitious.

Now, of course, if I go like this [finger-flicks her forearm],

I didn't feel that; you felt that.

Right?

But that's just because you happen to be the collection of nerves that are next to me.

That doesn't mean that we aren't sharing the same air.

And at some point I'm drinking whatever you're giving off.

We share everything.

And when you think about that,

then what is death?

It's the dissolution of the current collection of elements that you are,

and you're passing them on to other things:

it's your final donation.

So—but people ask,

“What happens to your 'self'? What happens to your thoughts? What happens—?”

Well: tell me any thought you've ever had

that is external to your senses.

Tell me about LOVE,

without telling me how it makes you feel like—

like the weight of the world is lifted off of you and your lungs are in free-fall.

Right? You can't.

Tell me about HATE

without talking about rising blood-pressure and the narrowing of focus.

You can't.

Everything is bounded by our physical experiences,

so when your body goes? Everything goes.

And that's something to make peace with.

And I think the fact that it's a donation,

makes me more happy about letting it go.

Because I've seen some pretty cool earthworms in my day …

they know their place, and they do good things.

And if I can be fuel for an earthworm?

I'm alright with that being my final legacy.

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 5 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

“What's your spirit animal?”

I've been told a pit-bull.

“I don't know if I see that.” [echoes of agreement]

Okay, I'm sorry—maybe we should open this up: What is my spirit animal?

“If a bird and a dog had a love-child, it would be you:

like, a falcon and a lab.” [echoes of “Yeah”]

“I was just gonna go with some sort of puppy—

something super playful and vibrant.”

Alright.

“Maybe, like, a pit-bull with a jet-pack.”

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~ * POEM 6 * ~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~

I am a 33-year-old; you are young high schoolers, who I was…

is there anything you want to know

about what's going to be happening to you

in the next 15 years?

“You seem very content with yourself—

what is the most important thing, in achieving that state?”

Recognize that Hatred, and Bitterness,

and all of those other negative emotions

are not laser-beams; they are ATOM BOMBS:

you think you can be angry at another person

without being angry at yourself—

that is bullshit;

you think you can hate one person

and love another person—

that is bullshit.

If you build love, you will have love;

if you build peace, you will have peace.

If you build complaints and excuses,

your mind will be filled with

complaints and excuses—

and it will make your life SAD.

Find the CONNECTION you have

with the people who irritate you;

find the connection you have

with your sandwich;

find the connection you have

with tables … [touches a table]

This used to in the ground, in a mountain, on a tree somewhere.

Appreciate everything that is around you, and has been brought.

And realize that [one finger] you owe nothing,

[two finger] you deserve nothing—

“You are imagining you owe

You are dreaming you deserve”:

We are here.

And that's like a small miracle.

And if you just keep your mind on that,

you will start feeling very PEACEFUL—

because there's no pressure on you:

if you just sit there, in that chair, and don't hurt people?

You're doing alright.

“Leave things as good as you found it; everything else is extra credit.”

That's one of my life principles.