I do like the meatball sandwich at Gallo's on Riverside Drive

It's been all internet spam here because it's overwhelming out there right now. If you are capable of reading this, you already know about the political climate of this country, and the world for that matter.

Bullet points just are not cutting it for me right now. Twitter threads that people say are important and must scrolls become redundant - in the way you have to sign into get in line at the Spectrum once Time Warner cable customer service office.

After 27 years I finally quit Time Warner in favor of another company. I originally wanted to go with another cable company, but after promising me a weekend installation time they backed out and we could not even agree on a late afternoon installation.

So here we are now.

Just got back from a Blue Jackets victory. They are one point from the franchise high in points with 92 points. There are sixteen games to play. What an incredible season this team is finally having.

Note to self: Rehearse

Actually remembered a dream from last night, a woman I know only through Facebook was running for some sort of elected city office here in Columbus. That is odd in itself because said person does not live in Columbus, nor, to my knowledge, is she a U.S. citizen. She was miffed that she lost and that she did not have much support from women in her district. I tried to commiserate by saying that if she ran for office in the district just south of her there were plenty of women I could have recommended for her to get some help from.



As usual, I do not know what this means but it may be some subconscious spill over from the past Women of the World poetry slam conversations that have been happening. A couple of epic threads about coaching and safety were posted. There have been some interesting points raised. The points matter, if you get them I guess.

Last night Writers’ Block had another qualifying slam for the National Poetry Slam team. Since I can’t go I’m not competing but I offered to be the sacrificial poet last night. The poet who reads to calibrate the judges, then goes off into the night to heckle.

The poem I read needs a lot more editing, but I still gave it shot. It’s a poem I wrote about living in Columbus that other poets have also done, to varying success. Stumbled in a couple of places I should not have, made light of it while stumbling. Not a great moment and it got the 25.8 it deserved. Could have done better, knew it, and moved on.

At the end of the night a man came up to me, thanked me for the poem and asked for a copy of it. You never know, even after what you may think is a mediocre performance your words do have an effect on people. That is a good thing to take after an evening.

Transition

We're due for about three days straight of rain to start the week. Dreary, dark, depressing and other D words come to mind. None of the words are snow, which is odd for this time of year. Friends in Buffalo are worried. There has been little, if any, measurable snow. A very rare happening.

It's going to get cold though.



On Wednesday night Writers' Block will be holding a Grand Slam for the Woman of the World Poetry Slam. Eight poets will be competing for the opportunity to go to Denver in March. Going to be some hot action on the Kafe Kerouac stage. Starts at eight.

Another Year Over, a New One Just Begun

Another Women of the World slam has come to an end. From all I hear and read on the Facebook, it looks like Columbus put on another successful event.

Due to some illness, burn out and overall exhaustion, I was unable to attend most of the events. What I did see though, was rather impressive.

First off congratulations to all of the organizers, volunteers and poets who made this event possible. You all worked your tails off to make WoW a great event.

I do have to single out one person, whose efforts and organization were a paragon of professionalism. Well done Louise Robertson.

Only saw two events, a prelim and the finals. Saw some great poetry by some poets I've seen and have never seen.

Franny Choi is a fresh voice on the scene. Only a sophomore in college from what I understand. Hope she's around for a long time.

What provided the most excitement overall was that a Columbus poet earned her way on to the finals stage. I'm proud to say she's my friend. Rachel Wiley came in fourth place, and it was so awesome to see her Mom and Dad in the crowd cheering her on.

Gypsee Yo gave me a lot to think about during the one poem I saw her do at last year's event. To see her do three poems last night were nine minutes I'll long treasure. Such energy and determination took her to second place. An amazing poet.

Theresa Davis impresses me each time I see her perform. That she was even in the slam this year was a small miracle. Another poet could not make it and she was first on the waiting list. That's how she got in, and worked her way onto the finals stage. She did three poems of honesty and power and ended up winning it all.

The judging was consistent. I only think one poet, the last one in the first round, Joanna Hoffman, got robbed - but that's me quibbling.

It was also great to see poets seeing other poets again, all the hugs in the theater were beautiful to watch. Weird how some of us gathered in almost the same seats as last year. Gina, Teri and Kym were sitting in front of us again. Sean, Marshall and Ali were behind us. Rachel and Calvin sitting next to me. Linc from Dayton on one end of the row, Paula and Michael all the way on the other end. Organic family fun.

Simply an amazing week of poetry in Columbus. It's a shame WoW will be in Denver next year, it should be here every year. Ok, maybe not, but some national poetry event should. Columbus gives good poetry.

Time for me to get back to some writing. Seeing the local and national home pages of news websites brings me down. So much turbulence to suck a person into. So much outrage. Plus, I have the Arts Fest audition on Saturday. I should be working.

Blocked, Lazy and Distracted

The actual writing has been on the back burner for the past couple of weeks. Nothing more than fragments. I have been doing some writing work, preparing for the audition for Arts Fest next week. Also been accomplishing things writers do, waiting for the right time to let that out. It's good stuff.

Slowly starting to feel better, whatever I had really took a toll. It's giving me a cough now, which is fine during the day but not at three in the morning.

My son is feeling better, which is quite the relief. We all went grocery shopping on Sunday, a full shop and we did not put him in the cart. He walked with me the whole time, up and down the aisles, very well behaved.

He had an excellent therapy session last week. His therapist was working with him on facial features and identification. She drew the figure on the lower left then helped him draw the head and eyes on the lower right. He, all by himself, drew in the nose, mouth and he carefully put the ears on.



Last night he pooped in the toilet so he got some iPod privileges. I have an app of facial emotion indicators that he likes. Why he laughs hysterically at the sad emotion is very amusing and disturbing. I try to get him to press on the face that corresponds with how he's feeling, he presses on sneezy, or gassy. Then I ask him to show me happy, and he presses on that one.

He also bounced heartily on the yoga ball, better that than my knees. Last night with him tonight after an exhausting two straight weekends with him. This last weekend though, more joy than challenges.

WoW starts tomorrow night. Last chance slam at Barley's. Starts at eight. No excuses, unless you're too chicken shit to confront truth.

Women of the World Poetry Slam

For the second consecutive year Columbus will be hosting WoW - Women of the World Poetry Slam.



World is not just hype here. This year poets will be coming from all over the United States, as well as The Sudan, Albania and Australia.

Information on this year events and schedules can be found here.

My thoughts on last year's finals can be found aqui.

This week's Writers' Block on Wednesday night will be at Barley's Underground with the headlining event being the Last Chance Poetry Slam. Women will be competing for one last slot in the WoW slam. Last year's was excellent!

I'm sure there will be a couple more posts on WoW as the week progresses.

Number Five, Number Five

It is an anniversary today.



Tonight is my fifth year being a part of Writers' Block. It took a couple of years for me to finally get up the nerve to read poetry, my own poetry, onstage.

So on March 2nd, 2006 I went to the Columbus Music Hall and did it.

Life has not been the same since. There have been so many changes, so much drama that has calmed down and WB saw a lot of the good and the bad of those episodes.

Who knew I'd be going to Berkeley as the IWPS rep back in 2009? Not me.

Who knew I'd be doing features, slams, appearances around the county and coming in second place at the Columbus Arts Festival? Not me.

Unfortunately I'm really sick today and am most likely not going to make it out tonight. Wanted to give an electronic thanks to all of you from my deathbed.

Especially you.

See you at Barley's next week as the Women of the World Poetry Slam returns to Columbus.

Next Week: Jennifer Beals' Goobers

In all my years of attending Writers' Block I do not think I have ever heard so many breast references in one night.

Perhaps it was because Scott Woods went to Detroit for a reading and was deeply affected by one poet's take on the anatomy. He brought something from their night back with him to share with the rest of the class.

It's going to take a Silkwood Shower for my mind to erase the imagery of Irene Cara's raisinets.

Did you know that one poet has yellow titty tater tots? Now you do.

It's a given to not fuck with one's tank top twins.

Yes, there was also a great deal of alliteration last night.

I was so consumed by the breast that I thought the mention of a poet's Grandmother's great wall was about her rack. I was mistaken.

And poor Travis, coming all the way from Lima was overshadowed by the others with a heartfelt poem about breast cancer awareness. He got the photograph though.

A door prize ticket was picked, not out of a poet's bra, and I won admission to First Draft Friday night.

All of this breast mentioning, and the slam had not even started yet!



It was another qualifier for the Women of the World Poetry Slam and nine women, eighteen breasts, were ready.

In round one, no breasts were mentioned. There was not even any dong knocking.

In round two though, some puppies were released.

There was an alchemy of breasts and asses past.

However, the taste of #68's nipple is unknown.

Paula wrote succinctly about "These." And when I say these, I mean, those. Yes, them.

Not sure of my use of commas there, perhaps Louise can correct my punctuation. Heaven knows she can use an exclamation point or two.

When the smoke cleared Rose Smith won a very close slam.

I'd been away for a month. Yes, I missed it.

Swedish refereeing, the luck of the Irish, bad slam judging

One of the main rules of football is that players, except the goalie, are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands.



This hand ball, by France's Thierry Henry, was knocked to the ground and coolly flicked over to the head of William Gallas, who deposited the ball into the Ireland net - and France beat Ireland to go on to play in next year's World Cup.

If the goal had been disallowed would Ireland have won? We will never know that now. Henry is saying he did it, but it's the Swedish referee's call. It's a very sad way to decide a crucial game. Yes, in the end it is only a game, yet when such a visible and blatant breaking of the rules is allowed I think it funnels down to the rest of us.

I'm not saying France should demand a replay, but maybe an apology to the Irish team should happen. If not, I'm boycotting French wine this holiday, and that includes beaujolais nouveau.

Continuing the topic of bad officiating last night WoW qualifying poetry slam had one very questionable judge. I've seen a lot of strange scores in slam, but last night's was a topper. The one woman was gave out a 2, 1.8, a 3.5 and a 3.6. Sure, it's her prerogative to not like a poem, but to score that low is a bit insulting.

This is why the low score (and high) is dropped in slam and her judgment did not have much weight on the results. Gina won last night. Vernell came in second and Marie, who I had not seen before came in third. There are going to be six women in the Grand Slam, which will determine who will represent Writers' Block at the Women of the World Slam in March right here in Columbus. The Grand Slam is going to be on December 2nd and it will be a battle!