why i write...TED: Sheena Iyengar on The Art of Choosing

this video is not only excellent, entertaining, and addressing some of the most interesting conflicts in culture(s), it articulates a core reason why i write. i grew up in a house with parents that represented diametrically opposing cultural views on choice and the nature of the individual...so instead of choosing a camp, i became a poet and a buddhist sympathizer--always inhabiting the borerlands.

Poetry in the Morning--Session 1

Here is the first session of my Youtube project Poetry in the Morning where I read work that inspires me, straight out of bed, with maybe a little coffee in my system.

Poetry in the Morning--Session 1: "Switching" from Juliana Spahr's Fuck You--Aloha--I Love You

Hire Me Now

Someone offer me an awesome writing/researching/house sitting/social media'ing/landscape designing/meditation instructing/organization coaching/editing/curriculum building/kid or dog training/house staging/marketing job. in the San Francisco area, or telecommute.

I'm awesome, and I have solid evidence.

kcerda@gmail.com

Football(soccer) + poetry = the Brits are rockin' it

The place of poetry in Western culture is a tricky thing. Here in the States we are probably more hostile towards the genre(s) than anywhere else. Poetry is for sissies (or at least girls), poetry is boring or too hard to understand--these are so often the assumptions i come across when i mention poetry to non-writers (ok let's face it, also when talking with some strictly-prose writers too).

i think this is a bunch of regurgitated bullshit. Most people who say these sorts of things haven't read more than a few Shakespeare sonnets and some Robert*vomit*Frost...i'm sorry to all the Frost fans, it's not that he was without skill and importance, i just can't get on board...


i found this video on sexartandpolitics' tumblr.
football + poetry video

The moral of the story: real men read poetry. What dude isn't going to score by busting out with some Rilke or Rumi? C'mon...

And for your reading pleasure i offer you this small list of links to poems i dig.

The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator--Anne Sexton

Letter To the Woman Who Stopped Writing Me Back--Jeffrey McDaniel

The Quiet World--Jeffrey McDaniel

Book of the Things I Put Down My Bra--Elena Georgiou

After Rothko--Michelle Naka Pierce

A motley band of poetry missionaries...that's my next plan.

The Changing World of Slam Poetry

The New York Times:
Is Slam in Danger of Going Soft?