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