Slowly start your pens

The Blue Jackets had their best month ever and are in eighth place in the conference. I know other teams have games in hand, and the Blue Jackets are horrible on the road and have only four home games left. This is a small celebration for this franchise though. one that many have written off. They have flaws, deep ones, but right now while they are not necessarily learning how to win, they're proving they do not know how to lose. That is a big shift in the culture of this team.

Beginning to pack for the trip. Getting excited. Not sure how much blogging I'll be doing from the road, and certainly not doing a 30/30. I'll be writing though. Heck, I still have not really edited much from the last trip to Scotland.

Keep in mind Scott Woods' project The Road Taken begins tomorrow and The Rumble Out on the Promenade takes place on Saturday at Kafe Kerouac. These are two worthy projects for anyone to attend or participate in as National Poetry Month starts.

Cubicle silence

"How can you laugh when these terrible things are happening around you?" I was asked at work a few days ago.

"Well it's either that, or jail." Was my answer.

When people you love are in the hospital, dealing with death, in relationship woes or have not taken a shit in three days it's stressful. If I was not able to crack wise about it, the alcohol bill would be greater, and my doctor told me to cut my drinking because my blood pressure is high.

I'm grateful that stressors are flipped, it's the other sixteen hours of the day that are freaking me out, not the eight I no longer spend having to deal with the public.

Still, one good martini after my half day of work before vacation is a good idea.

Still, not worrying like Hell while I am out of the country is going to be next to impossible.

Another old college try

My son has been involved in a program called Shakespeare and Autism for most of the school year. It was started by some actors from the Royal Shakespeare company in partnership with The Ohio State University. There's an hour class that he takes at school every week. It's hard to say how much he's getting out of it, he's not coming home spouting lines from the Tempest or babbling in iambic pentameter. Ok, it would be cool if he did a little bit of that.

You can read about the program here. It's an interesting take on socialization and developing verbal skills. I hope they're successful with it.

There's also a video, my son's in the background.



The kid with the dark shirt is very sweet. When I see him he always asks if I like trains.

I think my son is the only autistic kid on Earth who is not interested in trains.

Defending the Cause

Once in awhile I have to become an ambassador for spoken word, whether or not it's calling out someone calling participants in the Women of the World Poetry Slam "Fake Feminists" or someone saying that watching videos on youtube of people popping zits was preferable to watching spoken word videos.

The latter happened last night, I asked the person what videos he was watching. He replied bad ones, but asked if I could recommend good ones. I mean, he could have been watching some bad spoken word on youtube, it's certainly out there. But, I had to see what I can do to try and change his outlook.

I sent him links to two. Jamilla Woods' "Pigeon Man."



And Jack McCarthy's "Careful What You Ask For."



Got a replay this morning that these examples were "much better."

I still wonder what he was watching.

The Cruelest Month

My NCAA brackets look like Evel Knievel after the Caesar's Palace jump.

April is National Poetry Month. There are a lot of writers who will post a poem every day, or do a writing project and put it online. I've done this a few times, with mixed results. I'll be out of the country for the first two weeks of April and will not be taking part.

There are a couple of poets who are doing interesting projects in April though.

Scott Woods has a dream to assemble a mile of poems. You can read about, and submit to The Road Taken: the Mile Long Poetry Book at the link.

Hanif Abduraquib will be presenting Rumble Out on the Promenade at Kafe Kerouac on April 6th. You can find out more by clicking here.



If you will be doing an online writing project in April, why not post about it in the comments?

The best record by an 80 year old this year

The record is called Lost in You, and it's freaking fantastic! She sounds great, does some inspired covers and it's got a warmth to it you do not hear much anymore.

The swingback

It was the day reservations for a road trip in July came through, details were worked out seamlessly - I made a Facebook comment about waiting for the other shoe to drop.

A week or so later my son was in the hospital, a relative was hospitalized on the east coast and a friend's father died.

That's life, I guess. It's not doing good things for my blood pressure though.

The better news is that all of the poets in the Columbus Arts Festival have been contacted that they have, or have not, won a slot on the Word is Art Stage. I'm waiting for the Festival to officially release the names and schedule, I will tell you it's very a very talented and diverse group of poets. There are veterans, rookies and members of the slam scene who have not read at Arts Fest. I'm really excited for June to get here.