The Cows Know...

It's hard to assess how the Sensory Learning Program is going. It's not harming him, in any way, at all. How bad can being on a bed that rotates while your listening to quirky music in headphones be? I listened to some of the music, it sounds like he's being Rick Rolled.

He's lying still during the half hour sessions, which is a minor miracle in itself. It's still taking him awhile to get to sleep, but he has been sleeping though the night as far as I can tell.

One thing he is doing is alternating his feet when he goes up the stairs. This is something I've been working on with him, and he's finally got it. Going up, not down yet though.

We're more than a third of the way through these sessions.



This weekend was the Columbus Arts Festival. Saturday was quite damp and humid. A storm around 4PM caused the organizers to close the event for a short time. I read first, in a tent that was very sauna like.



There was a layer of sweat on me after my set. For the record I read:

Pantoum For a Child with Insomnia
Swings Inside the White Fence
The Revolution was Not in the Program Guide (Apologies to Gil Scott-Heron)
Divorced, with Special Needs
Started While Flying Over Cincinnati After IWPS
This Was How We Spoke
Lincoln Tower, the Grassy Knoll
Nobody's Poet

We left the festival and came back just in time to see my friend Joanna read two poems from her third place feature then saw first place winner Gina Blaurock's set. Excellent work.

I ended up being drafted off the bench to perform in the sixth annual poetry slam. Had a lot of fun, as did Scott Woods, who did everything but crowd surf during The Gospel According to the Matrix.



Later, Scott drew the largest time penalty I have witnessed. He lost six points. Joanna won the slam. I came in fourth.

Today I took part in the Decathlon Slam. I put together a team of poets who were out to create poetry mayhem. Vernell's team beat the crap out of us, and the secretly formed Dyno-Twins. I suspected a loss, but we were going to go out with our dignity intact.



How are you going to beat a poet reading Shel Silverstein's "Boa Constrictor" as Whitney Houston during her 2010 tour of Europe? You cannot.

It was a great weekend of poetry, and it was my Scottish Wife's birthday!

I have taken the next couple of days off to get my son to therapy and look after him before he starts day camp next Monday. His therapy concludes on Sunday afternoon. A busy week is ahead, and the World Cup starts on Friday!