Poetry CALENDAR benefit for Blue Stoop

It is an honor to be published in this poetry calendar alongside so many brilliant poets who I admire! This is a benefit for Blue Stoop. Please see THIS LINK for details!

Many thanks to everyone at Blue Stoop

POETS IN THE MUSEUM

It has been a dream of mine for years to be an exhibit in a museum as a poet. To take up the space reserved generally for the visual arts.

Tomorrow begins my first experience building (Soma)tic poetry rituals and writing in the museum. For one week I will be throwing my body into the poems.

The artist Jason Dodge named his new show at MACRO after a line from my poem "CAMISADO," in my new book AMANDA PARADISE (Wave Books).

When I enter the museum in Rome tomorrow, I will not step out again for a week. What is most exciting is that I have no idea yet what the rituals will look like.

Many thanks to Jason Dodge, and to everyone at MACRO for this opportunity. Thank you also to the poet Brenda Hillman for the special crystal for these rituals. 

From December 11 to the 16

Details at THIS LINK

If you are in Rome PLEASE JOIN ME in making rituals and writing poems!

UNSETTLING Amsterdam in-person

PLEASE R.S.V.P. me at: 88CAConrad (at) Gmail (dot) com

BOTH EVENTS are at Sandberg Instituut

THURSDAY

December 9

18:00 to 20:00

Presenting new work CROW GIFTS The Jasmine Ascension 

FRIDAY

December 10

11:00 to 16:00

(Soma)tic Ritual Workshop

FIVE BODIES: Entanglements 2022

 FOR WORKSHOP DETAILS

PLEASE CLICK HERE

12 (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals in latest issue of THE BELIEVER

 PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ

there’s nothing here but flesh and bone, there’s nothing more

Curated by Eoin Dara for the 2021 TULCA Festival of Visual Arts in Galway, Ireland

The publication is a collection of letters of love and longing, written towards someone or something just out of reach, and includes letters from around the world by Sophia Al-Maria, Claire Biddles, CAConrad, Theodore Kerr, Sekai Machache, Mira Mattar, Mícheál McCann, Nisha Ramayya and Jay G Ying

Please see THIS LINK for details on the publication, as well as the artists and exhibitions

MANY THANKS to Eoin Dara, and to everyone who made the festival possible

This is my letter included in the publication:

Dearest Tre, it is 45 degrees Celsius this afternoon here in the Mojave Desert. I'm missing you, when do you arrive? The intense heat makes things seem further away; how is it doing that? Here is a new poem for you. Wet your finger in your mouth and spell each word onto your chest, and keep that finger moist, my dear!

When you get here, I will introduce you to the 9 animals who are part of my new (Soma)tic poetry ritual. The nocturnal animals include a band of howling coyotes who comb the sand and cactus around the house each night, looking for something delicious to eat. The kangaroo rat is one of my favorite creatures who live in this desert. My binoculars are good enough that we can watch their whiskers and little hands hold sunflower seeds to nibble while balancing on those massive legs, which actually evolved to kick their way out of a rattlesnake's jaws! I had a dream I was breastfeeding a kangaroo rat; it was beautiful! My mother came in the room and screamed, but you calmed her down while I continued to enjoy feeding my friend whose little claws were gently tangled in my chest hair. "Queers can breastfeed?" I nodded to her, "Yes, I used to breastfeed my stuffed animals as a child, didn't you know?" What a strange thing to dream of my mother seeing me feed a small animal with my body and that you had to intervene on my behalf. Queer needs for queer nerves revealing themselves in new ways.

Remember a few years ago, I asked you to cut my arm with your bowie knife, so I could write a poem while observing my cells in their 27-day repair cycle? There is something special about having the body be part of the writing experience, and with these birds and animals in the desert, each one is assigned a spot on my body. For instance, when the glorious quail come bopping into the yard, running across the sand together, I lightly caress my right jawline with my left thumb. Brush it ever so lightly for 30 seconds. Locating an animal on myself is an incredible way to enter the writing. You will LOVE THIS: the kangaroo rat is my left nipple. After the dream, how could it be any other part of me!? The coyotes are the backs of my ears. I can easily imagine that if one of them let me rub the back of their ears, they would like it a lot!

The lizard gets the spot just below my navel. I have no idea why my dear before you ask! You will have plenty of ideas, but hear me say the body needs our intuitive touch, the imagined cartographies of the flesh! Let's rub our bodies when we see creatures; in fact, let's scratch each other's ears when the coyotes howl! Let's do it! I'm ready! The roadrunner is the most aggressive creature who visits, and I rub my spine, all the way up and down I rub it. Chipmunks are my ankles, and I love how they stretch their bodies on the shaded cement patio to cool their bellies while eating peanuts and cherries. One day the roadrunner tried to catch and eat a chipmunk, and I was grateful for my little furry friend's speed. 

Doves are my hands, and I think it is from a television commercial of my childhood about a brand of soap named Dove. It irritates me, but there is nothing I can do about it. If I see doves or even hear them without seeing them, I feel them in my hands. It is not too much to surrender to in the end. And I like the doves and very much enjoy the use of my hands. My gratitude to doves and hands--- the perfect time to say I love you! Solar plexus to solar plexus! Your private forest witch, CAConrad

50th ANNIVERSARY of Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters

Please join us for an online event to celebrate this extraordinary book that Ken Chen calls "a time machine toward a better future."

Please go to THIS LINK to register

Please go to THIS LINK to see the new and expanded edition

 

MONDAY, November 22, 2021 

7PM LONDON

2PM NEW YORK

11AM SAN FRANCISCO

Helen Charman, CAConrad, Sophie Lewis, Mira Mattar, Sarah Shin and Francesca Wade

MANY THANKS to Sarah Shin, Silver Press, and London Review Bookshop

FULL MOON Reading (in-person event)

November 19, 2021

Lemington Spa

England

7pm

Please RSVP 

jonathanskin@me.com

MANY THANKS TO JONATHAN SKINNER!

GLITTER IN MY WOUNDS

I am honored that Adam Broomberg printed my poem GLITTER IN MY WOUNDS in his new book of photographs.

PLEASE SEE THIS LINK FOR DETAILS

Many thanks to Adam and the publishers at MACK BOOKS

My poem GLITTER IN MY WOUNDS

Herbs and the Touch of Our Ancestors

My new ritual begins on Samhain, 2021, the gateway to winter. At the moment, there are two main goals: (1) To approximate which generation of my family took the most significant step away from the natural cycles of the planet toward the more mechanized Anthropocene. (2) To begin imagining a system of reconnecting to the planet’s rhythm on a daily, if not permanent, basis.

I have been part of larger occult and pagan communities for decades, and I am grateful for the many things I have learned with these friends. Most of the contact with these communities has been attending Lunar and Solstice festivals. My favorite conversations at these gatherings have always been around our everyday magic. What are we living with after the festival?

My ancestry is Danish and Irish, and to begin my reunion, I am focusing on herbs used for healing and prevention of illness. Which generation started having more bottles of pills in the house than healing plants like Henbane, Goosegrass, Boneset, Feverfew, Meadowsweet, and many others? Over the centuries, what was lost that was too valuable to lose, and what have we gained? How to supplant some of the ancient wisdom alongside the new so both humans and the planet can thrive?

TAROT and POETRY FUNDRAISER

I am offering 3 three-card tarot readings

And 1 phone poetry reading

 

FUNDRAISER FOR THE AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER LESTER SLOAN

A severe storm damaged his archive in storage 

PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK for Kickstarter DETAILS

 

(photo is Lester Sloan and his daughter, the writer Aisha Sabatini Sloan)

3-Poem VIDEO (for an upcoming event)

INTERVIEWED by Jesse Pearson, Apology Magazine

Please use THIS LINK if the button is not working

MONDAY October 18th VOCARIUM READING SERIE

Very excited to perform with

DIANE SEUSS

Introduction by 

ARIANA REINES

MONDAY October 18, 2021 

7PM Eastern Time

Harvard University's 

Woodberry Poetry Room

PLEASE CLICK HERE

(to register for this online event)

MANY THANK to Christina Davis for

the invitation to read with Diane Seuss

My writing on CASTOROCENE

please CLICK HERE

many thanks to George

many thanks to LUX, Scotland

Today my new book is officially released

It makes me very happy to introduce AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration

Please visit Wave Books for details:

https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/amanda-paradise 

Please consider purchasing a copy from Open Books at this link:

https://bit.ly/AmandaParadise88

There are just a handful of poetry-only bookstores on the planet 

To celebrate AMANDA PARADISE I made a chapbook that is free if you purchase a copy of the new book, plus one other book from Open Books 

3 Sample poems from AMANDA PARADISE: 

Blush: https://www.blush-lit.com/caconrad 

The Believer: https://believermag.com/logger/ca-conrad/ 

The New York Times: https://bit.ly/NewYorkTimesArtAndDesign 

Thank you for supporting independent poetry! 

New interview with me in Poets and Writers

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ

Astrology of Onward & the Onward Poet-Salutation

For the 2021 Graduating Class of Sandberg Art Institute

by CAConrad

Thank you for asking me to talk about astrology, and I start by saying that whether it is part of my worldview is not an interesting subject. What is more exciting is seeing how the zodiac frames our lives inside its systems of interpretation. As artists, we often aim our attention to critique culture by studying its mechanisms of control and behavior. Tarot cards are reimagined and reclarified with new decks printed all the time, and we can likewise challenge some of the aspects of astrology for an upgrade.

Capricorn is my Sun Sign, and I relate to many of the things said of us, that we work hard, push ourselves to hone our skills, and consistently improve our practice and, ultimately, our craft. Our symbol is the goat; one of the stars in the constellation, Capricornus, is dedicated to the goat nymph Amalthea who nurtured and suckled the infant Zeus until he rose to power to rule over Mount Olympus. Capricorn is a philosophy of "onward," meaning to move continuously forward, never stopping, never allowing others to come between us and our goals, and this is incredibly helpful for artists. 

Years ago, Black Mountain College poet Jonathan Williams showed me a letter from the poet Robert Creeley, who signed the bottom of the letter, Onward. I remarked to Jonathan about liking this choice of salutation, and he told me that he and Creeley had a conversation about it once. He was looking for the best way of saying what we must do, which is to be on a continuous path forward. It was beautiful, the more I thought about this placement, directly at the end of a letter, encouraging his reader, saying we must not stop!

Over the last four decades, I have known hundreds of poets, painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, and nearly all of them stopped doing their creative work. When I began writing poetry in 1975, I had no idea that my first book would not be published until 2006, nor did I imagine wanting to stop writing because it would take more than thirty years of hard work to reach that point. Onward we go! The uses of astrology often ask about the compatibility of lovers who are other zodiac signs, but what if we choose to see how our astrological traits can be of value to others? If we think of this belief system as a place to build community, then for Capricorn, instead of the competitiveness our horoscopes constantly accuse us of embracing, what if we channel it for change? Know your strengths, and in my case, it means to remind my friends how much their art means to me and not allow them to become former artists who stop making what they love.

We also do not have to quietly settle for definitions and prescriptions from astrologers. Capricorn is a goat with a fishtail--- a mergoat. Astrologers often say our goat upper-body strength helps us climb to the summits we desire, no matter how far away. They also say our fishtail is our weakness, making us unstable in water's subconscious depths. I disagree, having enjoyed balancing within myself these reputed conflicting halves. Much like the Great Sphinx of Egypt, it is not that the human head needs to tame the lion body, but instead needs to become at one and harmonious with the muscular, wild, fierce lion, and this is precisely the same with Capricorn.  We learn to incorporate our deepest feelings, synchronizing with the underwater source of potential power by cultivating trust in our abilities and allowing our strong, forceful fishtail to steer us in the direction we most want our lives to go. Whenever we Capricorns prove astrologers wrong and make our two halves work together, we are unstoppable!  We must not allow the suspicious doubts of others to interfere with the possibilities of our self-actualization, fully embracing all we have to offer our lives and the world.

Try this: replace "lover" in your horoscope with "community." Replace "should" with "could" and place "art" whenever they tell us about the things we need to do. Evaluate your zodiac sign for yourself, questioning everything until you have your personalized appreciation of the stars. Your life and what you want to create are quite possibly beyond the understanding of certain astrologers, so accept that you have a larger lens on the matter and find it yourself. You are now graduating from the Sandberg Art Institute, and it is up to you to love what you learned enough to continue making the things you came to Earth to do. Congratulations, and may you help the world around you thrive along with you!

On the BASILICA HUDSON podcast!!!

PLEASE CLICK HERE

MANY THANKS TO Melissa Auf der Maur, Allison Young, & everyone at Basilica Hudson for having me on your podcast with the amazing Kate Durbin & Cat Tyc!!!

my new chapbook from Ediciones Microcentro, translated by the amazing Argentinian poet Cecilia Pavón

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR CHAPBOOK

MANY THANKS TO Cecilia Pavón 

And Ediciones Microcentro in Buenos Aires

I was interviewed for the podcast YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Many thanks to Ned Buskirk and everyone 

who makes this podcast possible!

(Soma)tic lecture for Städelschule Fine Art Academy

Due to covid-19 restrictions I am not in Germany as

I had hoped to be, but will instead be giving this talk

via Zoom. Please register at THIS LINK.

Many thanks to the faculty and students at Städelschule

for bringing me. Later this month I will also teach a

series of workshops for the students. And I hope to

visit in person one day in the future.

(Soma)tic Rituals and Resulting Poems on Yūgen App

Please CLICK HERE for Yūgen App

MANY THANKS to artist Alexander Burenkov!

(I knew the day was coming when my poems would move into technology beyond me. I only have a flip phone, but I'm happy if others can see the app.)

VIDEO PREVIEW OF WAVE BOOKS FALL 2021 CATALOG!

VERY EXCITED FOR OUR NEW BOOKS

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WATCH

OUR BOOK TRAILERS

 

PLEASE JOIN US FRIDAY, JUNE 4TH, 2021

Register for online event at THIS LINK

more notes from the Ignition Chronicles Ritual

My last (Soma)tic poetry ritual, "Resurrect Extinct Vibration," used audio field recordings of animals who have become extinct in my lifetime. The ritual momentarily returned the music of the disappeared back to the air, the body, and the land.

My newest ritual has 9 different ingredients; one of them involves interspecies communication. I have been in an apartment in Seattle, Washington, during covid lockdown for nearly a year. If you have never been here, crows rule this city. They are fearless, travel in large groups, chasing eagles out into the bay, and divebombing cats who dare to show their faces. I have been feeding them and eating with them at the window of #405. 

A plastic hummus container pinned to the wooden ledge has peanuts, crackers, and fruit. Poet is the name of one of the many crows who visit me each day, and they often bring me gifts. The latest is the shiny piece of round gold foil in the center, marked "12." Here is what makes me so happy about this dazzling bit of foil: I dreamed Poet was going to bring it to me!

The first gift was a small twig, a part of it broken and hanging on by a thread of itself. Poet came to the window on that first day, waving the twig. Then they set it down, tapped the window with that sleek jet black beak. Then picked up the twig and waved it again. They set it down again, chose a cracker from the bowl, and flew off. 

It was the night after the first gift, and my old boyfriend Christopher was in the dream, and he was yelling at me, "Stop saying crow, their name is Poet!" Christopher always thought he knew everything, but I liked his interjection on behalf of Poet. In the dream, Poet is at the window with a small piece of gold foil. Christopher said, "You better thank Poet, that is FUCKING GOLD they are giving you!"

Here we are today, all these months after the dream, and Poet brings me the GOLD! "Are we engaged now, buddy?" An emblem of the heart, feel the pulse of this golden river!

The 2nd gift was a tiny nub of translucent plastic. I wondered where Poet found this? It was for me, tap-tap, placed in the same spot where the twig had been deposited. At what point of the day did they find it, and then when did they think I would like it?

The 3rd was a dried red berry. Poet seemed to have a hard time parting with it. I said from my side of the window, "It's okay if you want to eat it." But they put it down, traded it for a peanut.

The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th were soft and fuzzy seed pods from the same kind of plant. Tap-tap, "You need this... And again..."

The 8th gift is a lovely, twirly tree seed. Poet was proud of this small flag. Tap-tap, then waving the flag of Maytime whose violent growth surges are weighed against its arrant grace.

The 9th was a strip of bark smelling of the sacred nourishment and fertility of the forest.

The 10th was a red half-moon piece of processed cat food. Poet struggled. They LOVE red half-moon pieces of processed cat food! "It's OKAY, Poet! I'm VEGAN! Go ahead, take it!" They set it down on the ledge in the spot where they place all of my gifts. Then tilted their head to look at it very closely, then picked it up, set it down, looked some more. Then Poet quickly tapped the glass, grabbed a cracker, and flew off! "I HAVE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW BEFORE I EAT THAT DELICIOUS HALF-MOON RED CAT COOKIE!" The effort alone is something I cherish from our bartering. 

The 11th was a fragile, soft, green seed pod. It was the sweetest of all the gifts, held by the absolute tip of Poet's beak! As they flew to the window, it stood out, a small green light set in front of their flight. The most petite bouquet, just for me! And how was I to know that THIS was to proceed the GOLD dream foil? If you ever meet me, ask to see the GOLD dream foil; it will always be with me.

REGENERATION workshop for th e H OM E SC H OOL

I am excited to write poems inside this new ritual!

Please click HERE for registration

Many thanks to HOME SCHOOL

A Dream of Rome

If all goes well, I will be living in a gallery space in Rome this coming November. For years I have wanted to LIVE a very public (Soma)tic poetry ritual, and thanks to artist Jason Dodge, it is coming true!

Am I saying I will be an exhibit? I suppose so because all breathing, walking, dancing, eating, sleeping, and other forms of living will be done there. Most important to me, though, is the community of the museum. Each day and evening, there will be many ritual activities for writing poems and anyone can join me as often as they want. Cooking as ritual for writing poems, as well as building, painting, talking about death, disease, love, and the destruction of everything that wants to prevent the bridges we can make to reach one another. This community ritual is separate from Poetry Commons, but I hope to collaborate on many levels with many different people through both.

HILMA'S GHOST: Grieving Through Creative Strengths with (Soma)tic Rituals

May 20, 2021, ✪✪ 1:00 PM Seattle ✪✪ 4:00 PM New York ✪✪ 9:00 PM London

This is a FREE Workshop 

PLEASE REGISTER AT THIS LINK

PLEASE SEE NOTE BELOW FROM THE ORGANIZERS AT CARRIE SECRIST GALLERY

MANY THANKS TO Dannielle and Sharmistha

NOTE from event organizer Dannielle Tegeder:

So excited for this Thursday’s free workshop on grief, death, ritual with one of my favorite poets CA Conrad. Join us @hilmasghost for its fourth public program, “Grieving Through Creative Strengths with (Soma)tic Rituals,” Thursday May 20 at 4:00pm EST. ✪ ✪ This is a virtual event, hosted by Carrie Secrist Gallery, will include brief talks on death rituals and the therapeutic capabilities of art by myself and @sharmistharay, followed by a creative workshop led by artist, poet, and ritualist @caconrad. ✪ ✪ Bring the art materials of your choice for a 50-minute session led by Conrad. ✪ ✪ Following a year of isolation, distance, and widespread loss, burnout and grief pervade our day to day lives. This session with CA Conrad focuses on somatic rituals to connect deeply with our bodies and find presence of mind. The workshop will address death and how to make sense of loss. We will learn how to create our own rituals as a means of grieving. ✪ ✪ Tune in to help us invoke the spirit of Hilma and follow the journey of the inner landscape! ✪ ✪ [Image: Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death, 1562]

#artandspiritualism #feminism #witchcraft #somatic #rituals #grief #death #hilmaafklint #artists #collectives

Poets on Death

It was the poets who helped me the most when many people I loved died in the early years of AIDS. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I asked 33 poets to please share with us their thoughts on the subject of death.

Many thanks to Janice Lee and ENTROPY Magazine for amplifying poets' voices during this latest health crisis. Much gratitude to the poets who shared extraordinary parts of themselves about one of the most challenging experiences of our lives.

Please click HERE for the introduction

Please click HERE for Part 1:

Samuel Ace * Vidhu Aggarwal * Will Alexander * Kay Ulanday Barrett * Anselm Berrigan * Anne Boyer * Zoe Brezsny * Anne Carson * Angel Dominguez * Abou Farman

Please click HERE for Part 2:

Tonya Foster * Peter Gizzi * Raquel Gutiérrez * Sueyeun Juliette Lee * Jimena Lucero * Jo Mariner * Anthony McCann * Tanner Menard * Fred Moten * Eileen Myles * Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué

Please click HERE for Part 3:

Tommy Pico * Ariana Reines * Raquel Salas Rivera * Prageeta Sharma * Cedar Sigo * Christopher Soto * Brian Teare * Jackie Wang * Emerson Whitney * Dara Wier * Elizabeth Willis * Joey Yearous-Algozin

Forthcoming September 7th, 2021

Surge of JOY from seeing the cover of my new book! Many thanks to EVERYONE at Wave Books for their dedication to creating beautiful books of poems! 

Please visit THIS info link.

Ignition Chronicles (page for a forthcoming anthology)

A Note on the (Soma)tic Poetry Ritual for the poem "9 Shard," by CAConrad

for Anne Boyer

For decades, poets have told me they write their best work when they are depressed or from the pain when a lover leaves, something that steers them into melancholy. When I teach creative writing, this often comes up, and I tell the poets in my class that I understand, but I also believe it is not exactly what we think it is.

We live our lives with our list of daily routines, from washing our bodies to obeying traffic signals on our way to work. There is so much to remember to get through the day. When tragedy disrupts our routines, suddenly, all of our attention is centered on that loss. It is in the focus of loss where many believe they can write better: Focus, the keyword.

It is crucial to learn that the focus the depression offers helps us write, not the depression itself. After we finally understand this, we see how we can orchestrate any focus we want, to write whenever and however we want! (Soma)tic poetry rituals have given me eyes to see the creative viability in everything around us for the poems!

Depression never again has to be a catalyst for creativity! What a relief! If I had to be depressed to write poems, I would have stopped it many years ago. After my boyfriend Earth was raped and murdered, I created a ritual to overcome my depression, getting out of the melancholy instead of romanticizing its violence on our emotional and spiritual bodies.

Poetry can improve our lives' quality if we forego the fable of sadness and alcoholism as being the best tools for a poet. I chose one of my newest poems for this anthology because I hope my latest always to be my best. Having written poems is not as important to me as continuing to write them because it shows me I am still living in a state of awareness. This poem encapsulates many years of understanding how to trust my audience, corresponding, rather than connecting things for them. To me, by not entirely connecting, I am inviting the reader to write with me. The space around the poem is for the reader's imagination to flourish. Collaborating with the creativity of the reader is something I always need to trust.

The poem below is from a series I call "Shards." They result from a (Soma)tic poetry ritual currently titled, "Ignition Chronicles," which has a couple of ingredients I would like to explain. During the pandemic, I am in Seattle, Washington, which is part of a rainforest. It has more rain than I have ever experienced, with an average of 36 inches a year. I knew that a new relationship with water would be beneficial for me for many reasons, chief among them being to expand my emotional capacity to cope with so much cloud cover. Each morning I take my bowl of millet or rice with nuts and berries to Kinnear Park to eat beneath a pine tree. The rain filtering through the branches places a taste of pine in my bowl. A Steller's jay flies to join my ritual each morning, landing nearby to scream for a nut. It is the only voice they have, so I imagine they might mean, "Good morning," but it very much sounds like a scream to me. When I mimic their sound, they seem to approve, shaking their magnificent crest. And then I write. Then I watch the sunrise over Elliot Bay and gather pine needles for tea later in the afternoon. Hearing the Steller's jay and crows of Seattle awaken each day is reassuring that we all know to greet the power of what morning brings. 

Later, I watch the sunrise again in another part of the world on outdoor public webcams. I have watched the sunrise in Mecca, Tokyo, Istanbul, Prague, and other places each day, trying a different outdoor webcam, meditating on these shards of light traveling 9 minutes through outer space after leaving the sun to reach us here on planet Earth. Yes, illumination and warmth arrive, but so does the help it brings for our bodies to produce critical vitamins for bone health, among other things. I drink the pine needle tea while writing with worldwide sunrise each afternoon.

I have 3 new poems in FLYPAPER LIT

Many thanks to the editors!

Please click THIS LINK 

Occult Poetry and (Soma)tic Rituals

MANY THANKS to Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

for inviting me to conduct this workshop

And THANKS to Harris for the SPARKLE flyer

Please register at writesofpassage13@gmail.com 

Class will meet May 22 and 23 

2PM EST

1PM CST

NOON MST

11AM PST

VERY EXCITED AND LOOKING FORWARD

TO CREATING RITUAL AND POEMS WITH YOU

photo is a still from the Norwegian TV show Are You Ready?

A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine

Please click HERE

for my new poem

Please click HERE 

for new poems by 

Jeffrey Renard Allen 

Chime Lama 

Lisa Creech Bledsoe

 Ever Jones

Marsha Cann

THANK YOU

to the editors!!

a (Soma)tic ritual for life after vaccination

Part of my Resurrect Extinct Vibration ritual included listening to extinct animal recordings while walking in a spiral formation inside Walmart stores across the US. Part of the experience was noting how The Walmart Portal had the same items for sale, same music, same lighting, and same smells.

After I am vaccinated and begin to move more freely, my goal is to visit as many different furniture, home improvement, food, clothing, and other retail stores in order to write through their smells---from fruit and wool to vile smelling furniture and building supplies which produce off-gassing.

I want my olfactory to push me into the new poem. How can the nose do the work of touch, of the ears? What memory reinvents a present smell? What actions exist around the present whiff? How is it possible to build a Scent Cave in the middle of a busy department store and go unnoticed? How can dance moves smell their way forward?