Phoenix and Encinitas

Day One
Hit snow in Flagstaff.
The reading at the Plaid Eatery was the last poetry reading.
Reason the poets don't eat enough food.
Skinny, poor poets driving out the paying public
with their rants and raves.
Brandy L sang her sweet/sour songs.
The hosts Mr. Frip and Mr. Not Frip were fun
and curry hot. Billy C ripped it up.
Day Two
Stuck in snow for two hours over the pass into San Diego.
The new Arts Coloney is in an old motel.
Few people but ever one bought books.
I should say I brought in Corbet Dean
to Desert last week and the Admin flipped
over a graphic police poem he wrote.
I told him to read anything, the kids ooved it
but the parents went crazy.
A year ago I was dancing in an assisted living center
with the ex chief of police. Now this....
I must close for now.
xox
Gary

Spring Tour 2006

Variety Show Featuring Live Poetry & Music
When: Friday, March 10, 8 pm - 12 am
Where: 1044 S Terrace RD, Tempe, AZ (@ Lemon ST/ NE of Apache & Rural)
Description: Featured reading 2nd Fridays The Plaid Eatery Variety Show Featuring Live Poetry & Music 480-349-9424 | mrfrip1@hotmail.com | Phoenix, AZ


Featured reading - Arts Coloney
When: Saturday, March 11, 7 pm
Where: 90 North Coast Highway, Encinitas, CA


Featured reading, benefit for San Diego Poetry Slam
When: Sunday, March 12, 8 pm
Where: Voz Alta, 1544 Broadway, San Diego, CA


Hanna’s Loving Care
When: Monday, March 13, 10 am
Where: 417 N. Alta Vista Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
Description: More info: 323-930-0836


Garden of Palms
When: March 13, 1:30 pm
Where: 1025 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA
Description: More info: 818-787-0462 Oliva Griffith


GREEN Mini feature
When: March 13, 9 pm - 12 am
Where: Palmer Room (in the back of La Cucina Paradiso) 3387 Motor Ave (between Palms and National) Culver City, CA
Description: Contact Ratpack Slim ratpackslim@gmail.com


The Karlton
When: Tuesday, March 14, 10 am
Where: The Karlton 3615 W. Ball Road Anaheim, CA


Sunrise Assisted Living
When: March 14, 2 pm
Where: Sunrise Assisted Living 201 North Crescent Dr. Beverly Hills, CA
Description: 310-274-4470 Contact Krista


Workshop on using poetry with Alzheimer’s patients, for health care workers, caregivers and family members.
When: March 14, 7 pm
Where: Emmanuel Presbyterian Church 588 Camino Manzanas, Thousand Oaks, CA
Description: More info: 805-498-4502


Brighton Gardens of Camarillo
When: Wed. March 15
Where: Brighton Gardens of Camarillo 6000 Santa Rosa Road Camarillo, CA
Description: 805-388-8086 Contact Stephanie


Featured reading at Berkeley Poetry Slam
When: Wed. March 15, 8:30 pm
Where: STARRY PLOUGH 3101 Shattuck, Berkeley
Description: More info: 510-841-2082


Featured reading
When: Thu, March 16 - 7 pm
Where: Moxie's 128 Broadway, Chico
Description: More info: 530-345-0601


Featured reading at San Jose Poetry Slam
When: Mon, March 20 - 8 pm
Where: The Britannia Arms. 173 W. Santa Clara San Jose


The Mansion
When: Wed. March 22, 10 am
Where: The Mansion 1906 Glen Canyon Rd. Santa Cruz, CA
Description: 831-438-5353 Diane Dearinger


Featured reading at Monterey Poetry Slam
When: Wed. March 22, 8:00 - 10:00 pm
Where: MORGAN'S Coffee & Tea. 498 Washington (@Pearl)


Featured reading at A Mic & Dim Lights
When: Thursday, March 23 - 9 pm
Where: Downtown Cal Poly Center 300 2nd. St. Pomona (Arts Colony)


Featured reader at a Poet’s Dinner benefit for NorAz (NORthern AriZona Poetry Community)
When: Fri, March 24 - 7 pm
Where: Los Abrigados Resort 160 Portal Lane Sedona, AZ
Description: More info: 928-282-1777


Sedona Winds/Kachina Pointe
When: Saturday, March 25
Where: Sedona Winds/Kachina Pointe 475 Jacks Canyon Road Sedona, AZ
Description: Phone: 928-284-1021 Contact: Dorothy Kelly

Leaping Lorca

Last summer the Santa Fe Opera commissioned me to create a piece on the Spanish poet Federico Garica Lorca. I worked with the PPDT and composed "LorcaLand." Here is one of the poems I wrote for the show.

Fuente Grande, Alfacar, Spain The Moors called Fuente Grande, Ainadamar, “The Fountain of Tears.” “Is it my separation from Ainadamar, stopping the pulsation of my blood, which has dried up the flow of tears from the well of my eyes?”
— Abul Barakat al Balafiqi circa AD 1372

Circles expanding on the face of the pond.
As if the surface were broken with rain.

Looking in I see the drops are falling up from the bottom.
A stream rising from the bed of rocks.

Rippling with tension, the steady boil of the rosary.
Flowing into each other a bead of tears.

Fuente Grande forever quenching thirsty dogs.
936 steps from the place of Lorca's execution.

Is this the way words appear breaking free into the mind?
The way kisses are brought into too scarce being?

How the surface of the sun makes yellow?
Where the moon mines her similes?

Gravity has no standing in this courtroom.
The Judge’s gavel is careening upward.

What law breakers the bubbles.
What sinners those molecules of want.

Who cannot answer the prayer of water?
Who does not regret this spilling of justice?

More PPDT

The Precision Poetry Drill Team was selected for a state-wide youth performance night. Feb. 4th at 7pm at the Lensic Theater in downtown Santa Fe. Are we the only poetry marching band? Here is the original group from last year.

Bike Powered Book-Mobile

Here is what one of the readers of H2Poet writes: I am a poet, mother, student, and cook in Montana. I make artist books and self publish, and usually manage to break even on my projects, and sometimes i make enough profit to fund the next one. I have started something akin to an artist collective, but we are focused on books: publishing, self publishing, printmaking, artist books, etc. I am always looking for creative ways to make money and do community service with my passions...and your book has so many great ideas and examples in it, i feel really encouraged to keep working on my dream. I have to brag to you about one of our fun and sucessful projects: a bicycle powered book-mobile. It has been redesigned a bit since the last photos were posted, but you can see it at www.slumgullion.org. Thanks! Debby Florence

NEA

The Alzheimer's Poetry Project (APP) received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The APP will expand to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC. We have already had great reading sessions in NY with Farbeon. We have sessions in Chicago at the following locations:

Monday, Jan 16th, 10 to 11am
Buckingham Pavilion Nursing Center
2625 W. Touhy Ave.

2 to 3pm
The Admiral at the Lake
909 West Foster Avenue

We also have an exciting event planned with Artists 4 Alzheimer's at the Bowery Poetry Club, in New York on Feb. 20th. The Alzheimer's Poetry Day is based on the idea that all cultural institutions open their doors to people with Alzheimer's and is an extension of Artists 4 Alzheimer's program of bringing people with dementia to the MoMA in NY. We will hold a reading in the club for people with Alzheimer's. Find out more about A4A at www.thehearth.org/Artists/News.htm

If you want to have poetry programming at an assisted living center or find out more info about Sparking Memories: The Alzheimer's Poetry Project Anthology, e-mail me the address below. Check out Alzpoetry.com

We are also looking for people to write about using How to Make a Living as Poet. Did it work? Did it flop? Was it helpful? How to Make a Life as a Poet will be coming out in a few months. We want to publish the best examples in the third book in the series, tentatively called, "Still Not Making a Living as a Poet?"

poetmex@aol.com
Gary Glazner