leaving the bubble–Rauschenberg Residency 29

Posted on February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 by admin

On Friday, I return to New York City, to Brooklyn after 5 weeks on Captiva Island in Florida. The Rauschenberg Residency has been an enormous gift to my mind, my spirit, my writing and creativity. The staff is so open and helpful and skillful and happy to be working in a place that is all about allowing artists to make whatever work they can while here. I stayed in the Print House with an International Artist , Minouk Lim,

on North Captiva–boat trip day

who has started to make huge waves in the art world. I met dance theater people who have worked or known people I’ve known from the theater and dance world. One of the artist is disabled but makes super huge sculptures. One of the writers here was working on the first major book on Norman Lewis. Every residency I’ve done reminds me of how many amazing poets, painters, dancers, composers, actors, scholars, etc there are and how this culture allows a few of us to be part of places designed to take care of our needs, our desires. RR29 has lived up to all it has set to be be. A place where the staff will help you do what you want to do or show you that you can do it. Amazing. I wrote new poems. Drafted essays on June Jordan and poetics. Read Angela Jackson’s bio of Gwendolyn Brooks, Eudora Welty’s wonderful book One Writers Beginnings and of course We’re On: A June Jordan Reader (Alice James Books), a must have for serious students of American poetry. And Laura Penny murder mysteries. With fellow residents I saw The Post where Meryl Streep chewed up some lovely scenery and journalism is celebrated.

Now I have to leave this beautiful bubble and return to the “real world” but of course this too is the “real world” just not the one we get to hang around in too long.

patio The Print House

Dog Tags by Jane Hirshfield on tree in “the Jungle”

Beach House writer’s studio

sunset spectacular

beach front

beach

the Jungle

The sun is in Aquarius-chaos abides and so does beauty

Posted on January 22, 2018January 22, 2018 by admin

At least in the seat of power, where chaos has abided since January 20, 2017. However, I am not in chaos. I am in a writing studio at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. The sun is bright, the air cool, there are shells found on the beach in front of the famous Beach House, where my studio resides. Last year one of the gifts received was this residency. I am now into my 2nd week and am working on prose and poetry, revising and starting new work. I am also listening to my fellow residents, many are visual and performance artists and one is a art historian working on a book about the great Black artist, Norman Lewis.

Gates to Main Studio, Captiva, FL

I left New York at the end of a cold spell (cold snap was totally not apt) but filled with great energy. The past few months have been about revisiting my life as a poet and writer, but also forging new projects and gaining new friends, not back for a sexagenarian. Over the past year I’ve worked to create a group of poets and cultural workers who are deeply interested in wresting the ideas and ideals of American identity from the current crop of crooks who claim it–good way to use alliteration. We have much to do. At this point we are calling it the American Poets Congress and we will be rolling out programs and activities that explore the concept, but also actively support Voter Registration and progressive candidates and agendas. The #Resistance has many elements and we are but one. It is good to part of efforts to combat not only this current noxious political climate, but to really think through the many ways that American ideals have lifted up citizens and people worldwide. I am mindful that the original pledge of allegiance was written by a socialist (without the in god we trust bit put in by the Eisenhower people) and the Memorial Day was organized by former bonds people to honor the Union Dead. Our national history is complicated and often violent, but when I think about the labor organizers who fought against child labor, when I seen the children of Birmingham, they were my age or older at the time, when I think of progress and forward thinking I see these great efforts from the Left and we need name and claim them and often. I grew up in the Delta in one of the poorest counties in the United States, I know what poverty looks like. I know how racism works and who is advantaged by it. What is happening now is the culmination of decades of ideological build up with all the stereotypes, bad ideas on top of White Supremacist thinking rolled into one ball of bad behavior i.e. our president. Sad, but we must work to gain and sustain power at the local and state as well as national level. It’s going to very very difficult. But as many women who marched this week noted “we are in it for the long haul.”

And I am a poet who has been in it for a long haul and I am pleased that some of my efforts have been recognized, even celebrated. Here where the Gulf shimmers and the Bay shines, it is beauty that makes me happy to be alive and working. Today is Richie Havens, Lord Byron and Sam Cooke’s birthdays-my kinda men. Beauty.

beach, sea, Captiva, FL

HAPPY HOLIDAYS–leaving the ROOSTER Year

Posted on December 23, 2017December 23, 2017 by admin

Joy Harjo and me, off site reading, 2017 AWP DC

This has been one of the most amazing years in my whole life. I read at venues that deeply connected me to the American poetic tradition: The Walt Whitman Birthplace; the Poetry Center of Passaic Community College; the UA Poetry Center; the Fine Arts Work Center. It has taken 4 decades of work to get to these places, but I am the poster child for persistence and persist I did. I thank all of the organizers and audiences for their hospitality and generosity and embrace of my work. In February, I was at AWP on a panel about capitalism! And I read from TRUTH TO POWER from Cutthroat Journal, one of my fine volumes emanating from political turmoil of these times. But more importantly, I got to hang out with Joy Harjo-we have known each other for 4 decades and this year she received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the most prestigious for American poets and then I received the Poets and Writers Jackson Prize–little did we know that on the day before my birthday in February.

Selfie with Lee Briccetti, dir. of Poets House

In May I celebrated with many of the bestest friends over 3 generations at the20th Century Association in mid-town on day of perfect weather and with my face composed by the lovely lady at the Saks Lancome counter to receive the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize. What an amazing gift –the dollars help, but the recognition was the most important thing. And it was a joy to share the moment with so many people who just wanted to celebrate. This on top of the gift of a residency from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. It seems that people found me and decided that it was my turn to get some of the glittering prizes. I worked hard for these gifts. I am pleased to have them.

And I have to say it was amazing to hear Bill Murray read my poem “Life Lessons” at the Poets House Gala.

I’ve used Walt Whitman as a way to engage writers to think about the current political situation through the lens of Whitman’s prose! It works. It worked at FAWC; it worked at Gemini Ink; it worked at the Poetry Center. I will continue to use Democratic Vistas as a piece to argue with and utilize.

And I used it as a way to enter teaching a graduate poetry workshop at Adelphi University, where I was treated with respect and where resources were presented to me. I had wonderful students and easier (but more expensive) commute.

Anthology honoring Gwendolyn Brooks-so glad to be in this.

Because of my work since the 1970s with a range of poets and artists, I too have embraced the necessity to organize against the current cultural political stance as clearly seen in conservative politics and media. So I’ve been quietly organizing a group of poets to start the real serious work of insisting on what American identity is. We need to take identity back from these narrow minded bigoted and greedy racist, sexist, homophobes who now run way too many things and claim their Americanness. So look out for projects from American Poets Congress, we are going to do some serious things in conjunction with the many powerful things that are happening in this nation. #Resistance is importance, but our Insistance on what should be American ideals, mythologies, identity–that’s going to be the fight for our future.

I thank you for your encouragement, your talent, your fierce belief in the better in us. I was so glad to see my family in May–my brother, sister and I visited our mother’s grave for the first time together since 2013 when we laid her to rest. My siblings are accomplished and spiritual and loving and hard working–we are our mother’s children. They are blessings in my life.

Mama”s grave, Forrest City Ark. Memorial Day, 2017

I have great faith in my Church Community, the members of Saint John’s Church in Park Slope have opened their hearts to many who are truly down trodden and broken. There has been much healing there. But I really have great faith in the poetry and arts community. We do important things just by demanding language that speaks truth. May you and your family have love, light and laughter in this year’s end. May we all have renewed strength to do the work we need to do as creative and compassionate people in 2018.

New York is very much alive

Posted on November 4, 2017November 4, 2017 by admin

At CUNY Grad Center, Victor Hernandez Cruz, David Henderson, Ammiel Alcaly

Empire State, Halloween

New York City is very much alive. While 8 people died from a terrorist attack even as tiny ghouls, smurfs, pirates, heros and sheros walked about with huge bags demanding candy. Meanwhile those with little or nothing on shivered in the chilly Halloween weather.

New York City is very much alive. While the mayoral race is on, many people are learning what they can and cannot do politically. Politics in this state must change-new people should be allowed to run; new voices need to be heard. Too much is done as if this was the 19th century.

New York City is very much alive. At the CUNY Grad Center Victor Hernandez Cruz read from his latest book and one of his oldest and best poems to a group of grad students, fellow poets like Don Yorty and me and then he sat down for a public interview. It was fun.

New York City is very much alive and moving and dealing with possible deaths and awful disruptions and yet the masks and costumes; the candy and liquor; the poets and critics were all out and about. Truck drivers, shoe bombers, radicalized racists won’t stop the music of any great city.

good bye John Ashbery

Posted on October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 by admin

sign, St. Mark’s gate

It seems fitting to post this picture of a humble sign placed on the gates in front of St. Mark’s Church. Today’s morning sky was BRIGHT as in BRIGHT and the air a soft chill. Adam Fitzgerald, Emily Skillings, Eileen Myles and the staff at The Poetry Project organized an informal, intimate farewell in the church’s austere sanctuary. A place where John had sad many a time. The last time I went to an event like this was the one organized for Amiri Baraka, which I chronicled in an earlier post. Since it was early and I live in Brooklyn, I got there about half hour into the proceedings just in time to hear David Shapiro, shaking and frail, tell anecdote after anecdote, mostly it seemed about himself, but really about the relationship he had with Ashbery. He read a letter Ashbery sent to him when he was 15! He read a beautiful poem. He made me want to just sit him down. I did not cry. But I think Emily did as she played an audio of John reading from a recent poem–every once in a while he would cough, but then his voice would regain vigor–that performance thing that kicks in no matter what. I had not realized that Emily was one of Ashbery’s many assistants.

Marcella Durand talked about his inscriptions–they were often lines from specific poems in the books and she read the inscriptions and then the excerpts from the poems. Fred Moten told us he never met John, but had some words to say and so he said them–it was a fine salute. Dorothy Friedman talked about being part of Ashbery’s first class for the Brooklyn College MFA program back in 1974. Her voice boomed out and she noted that a week or so after Ashbery’s demise, she got a letter from him (the post office is really getting slow) thanking her for her review of his recent art show. Todd Colby also talked about that program, but by the time he got to Brooklyn John had left–that MacArthur grant made a huge difference.

I think that because John travelled, wore suits on occasion and was a most courtly of gentlemen poets, some folks thought him rich–he was not. He worked hard all his life and you could see the range of that work in the kinds of pieces poets used. Bob Holman talked about creating a performance script from Girls on the Run, Ashbery’s booklength poem based on the Henry Darger art work. And he read a fine tribute poem. Jeff Wright told a joke that John liked to tell. And Paul Muldoon read the final poem Ashbery published in The New Yorker.

I was going to read from The Vermont Notebooks, which is not the most sophisticated of Ashbery’s ouvre but maybe the most fun–it’s the collaboration with Joe Brainard. And there they are on the cover looking super masculine-lots of hair, work clothes oh so 70s! Oh before AIDS. Anyways, I left the book in my living room and well basically said I represented all the Black poets (Fred included) who really loved John’s work and also the ones who knew him. And I read my poem for John’s 90th birthday: “Le Tribute

Le Tribute

Funny you request 90 words for 90 years

Okay the thing about Ashbery

Is that he makes us

unsure of which direction is the direction home

But, there is always home in Ashbery’s work, now isn’ t there?

Home & fame’s odd wit.

John tells me about seeing Marlon Brando Boston tryout

in A Streetcar Named Desire. A new masculine norm.

The abstracted beauty of it all & odd tempered music

and the ears ready to hear.

That he has

Something to say

and will just

Say it. So there.

Then Adam Fitzgerald gave story and anecdote and quip and love in the form of stories, anecdotes, quips expressing his deep love for his mentor and friend. I did not hear John sing Old Man River–that might have been too much, but I got back for le restroom to hear Rachmaninoff-Ashbery’s favorite music. Tres romantic.

Walking out into the bright mid day–I knew that a mass murder took place in New Orleans, that our President seemed to have an inability to communicate with people who are not White, rich and male, that there are more people sleeping on subway benches and that the subways frequently breakdown and the sun will set and it will rise as we humans regard:

“The climate, the cities, the houses, the streets, the stores, the lights, people.” John Ashbery, The Vermont Notebooks.

He’s got many friends in Poetry Heaven–I bet the party has started.

ijustcan’t even

Posted on October 1, 2017October 1, 2017 by admin

First I am deeply honored to be a featured guest of the University of Arizona’s Thinking in Presence (TIP) conference–here’s the link: https://www.thinkingitspresenceconference.com/

That’s like the really good news. There are other personal and spiritual things that are really good too, but the heart of America is rotting by the minute. A President who instead of finding better ways to assist the peoples of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where actual American citizens live, tweets nasty remarks about the mayor whose resources are at best limited. Is the President over the age of 10? Is he?

There is so much more, but what has been great is that the literary, performing and arts community across racial and ethnic lines have stood with the people of Puerto Rico. We understand that a man who so easily picks and chooses the winners and loosers from NATURAL DISASTERS is not to be respected or trusted. Whatever dignity the office confers upon him is gone.

So really & truly Ijustcan’teven say his name or wish him well. Ijustcan’t.

Summer is still here

Posted on September 7, 2017September 7, 2017 by admin

but it is a wet and treacherous one in the East and to the South and a dry and hot one to the West and North-floods and fire. Yeah, it is almost Biblical, but mostly this worst of these disasters are human made–over development in the East and West; human habitats where none existed a generation ago, making fires more prevalent and harming animals from birds to bobcats.

Nature and humans position with in nature is really at full throttle dialogue right now with humans f**king stuff up and nature doing what nature does, spread water, spread fire, spread dis ease. The we don’t see climate change like the people who say we don’t see culture are in deep denial or are addicted to lying–I think the latter. What shall we do.

Well as long as there is a Republic and people can actually vote for or against candidates, I say work hard for the ones you care about and work hard to remove the ones that are making a mockery of science and good sense. Nature is not annoyed. Nature is enraged and nature will take things back.

Houston under water, America troubled

Posted on August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 by admin

The news has been of Houston flooded and more rain coming. There is a FEMA director which is good, that’s about it in terms of federal support. The governor and mayor are fighting over the evacuate not evacuate issue. Even with a natural disaster, we cannot get along.

Our President has set a divisive tone from his bizarro world take on the White Supremacists rallies in Charlottesville and the spirited resistance and response to Nazis, White Nationalists and Klan members and the death of law enforcement officers and the murder of Heather Heyer. If ever someone wanted to illustrate a definition of the phrase “speaks with forked tongue” it would be of Trump at that news conference a few days afterwards. This is deeply disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising. 45 is a man of few words, but most of them hurt: Muslims, women, transgender people, refugees, migrants esp. from Mexico, and of course Black people–he was the guy who created the “birther” narrative. But mostly he hurts this nation and so few in his party have either the power, courage or concern to actually stand up to him and his ilk. The more obvious White nationalists are off the White House staff, but the ideas are there and will not go away.

I hate racism. I work hard to uphold the beauty and power of my tribe: Black Americans are amazing group of humans. Everything that could be done to humans has been done to us by those who adhere to White supremacy–even those who claim”I am not a racist”. Well maybe you’re aren’t, but your comfortable life is based on institutional racism: it curbs competition for education, jobs, political power; it upholds the cultural idea of who is supposed to “look American”; it allows for policies that ultimately hurt everyone-esp. the militarization of police departments across this nation.

The irony about Houston under water and what will have to happen for funding to recover this part of Texas is that the very legislators who voted TO NOT FUND SUPERSTORM SANDY RECOVERY are now going to have to ask for help. Many of these Congresspeople do not think climate change exists and they are often elected on their anti-science, anti-environmental, racist attitudes disguised as pro-law enforcement–they like the President speak with forked tongues. In this nation and in this world, our troubles are man made.

Black women make beautiful poets: E. Hunt, H. Mullen, T. Foster & E. J. Antonio

In an era of intense #resistance to what is now the status quo, we need to remember how important it is to know history; to honor those who love and built our nation, not those who fought to tear it apart; that those in power esp. those who bully and dishonor their positions need to imprisoned, not pardoned. #Resistance is important, but sometimes fighting back is also and ultimately, replacing those who create, produce and support racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-environmental, anti-science, anti-rule of law policies. If we do not, the clownish concentration camp that Sheriff Joe once ran will be in every city and state in this country. We deserve so much better than what we have right now.

The city joyful. They city traditional. The city holding on

Posted on August 10, 2017August 10, 2017 by admin

La Casita, a happy little girl.

Grace Note

There is a little girl happy at La Casita

See her compose her dance as the band

Launches a jibaro tune from Old San Juan

Watch her smile rise and her little legs

Loop before the stage’s apron. She’s

The grace note, the sweet dream of

Manny Vega’s phantasmagorical temple

To community: the laughter, the dominoes

The courting couples, the elders resting

The garden fertile with peppers, squash

And greens from around the globe.

–Patricia Spears Jones

I wrote this poem after performing at La Casita, the annual summer celebration of community, poetry, music and dance resulting from Manny Vega (the artist) and his friend’s celebration of the gardens and meeting places that seemed to spontaneously develop in Puerto Rican neighborhoods throughout New York City–the little house, la casita was a place where the old and young could talk and sing and play dominoes and bond. Each year the curators pull together poets and musicians and performers to present work and this year I had the honor of reading in Hearst Plaza at Lincoln Center. And that little girl who danced her 2-3 year old girl’s dance represented for all the audience. She is a reminder that there is joy in this city; that children are loved; that artists make new and important work; that the sun shines for the artists on a day when rain was threatened. I was not well enough to hear all of the performers, but I left as Persian music (including poems by Rumi) was being performed by Haleh. It comes from a great tradition as did the Puerto Rican music the little girl so loved and its spirits helps me, all of us hold on.

Haleh-Persians singing Rumi, et al

San Antonio has many accents

Posted on July 26, 2017July 26, 2017 by admin

one of the many bridges over the river.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I agreed to be a featured speaker and workshop leader for the 2nd annual Gemini Ink Writers Conference. I knew that I would be paid okay and I’d have a hotel room and meet some really great writers from all over the country because that is what conferences do. But I had no idea of how much I’d like San Antonio. The hotel was straight out of the 1950s and yes it was LBJ’s campaign headquarters. The Tiki Bar was small and tacky-the music was great or awful depending on the lounge lizard on the floor. The staff was attentive or not depending. San Antonio is majority Latino, but you can see that power is in the hands of Anglos. And the place is all about male vanity. Indeed, the hats, boots, well ironed cotton shirts–every man had some sort of attire that said this is who I am or what I do. And women dress to please them. The heels high. The necklines flattering. Or they dress to defy them. Either way the patriarchy is rules Texas even in its gentler form in San Antonio.

That’s the human sort of thing, but what was thrilling was the shape of the city, the architecture, the sun blasting all creatures, buildings, streets and water. There was this engagement with the river and the street and the sun that really enthralled me. The heat is serious. The colors are bright and then blasted by the sun light. The black and white mural on Navarro Street seemed to say-we have to seek the very basic of colors–black and white, all the others wil

Mural-San Antonio

l be bleached away. The conference was a great success I think. But for me it was revealing–a reminder that the history of this nation is varied and complex and one 300 year old city can showcase the greatness and the smallness of our ideas, ideals and civility. It was pointed out that 25% of the local Hispanic population is illiterate. It was also explained to me that there is no unified school board, no citywide

support of public education. That illiteracy rate goes to show how power is not shared in San Antonio and why there are many many people exploited each and every day even as the flowers blossom and the river curves its way into the heart.

Tile work is important in San Antonio