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Where once you couldn’t get me into a classroom; now, you can’t get me out of one.

Last night I started taking a six-week creative non-fiction workshop since I am not already busy enough with work and wedding preparation. The writing was different and very taxing. We kept shifting sensory gears but stayed on the same topic, which in this case turned out to be an emergency room that I visited way too often as a kid.

If the point of the exercise is to keep pen to paper, then I succeeded on that level, and, for the first time I can recall, I was able to write about my childhood without using $5 words and overwrought descriptions. If I can keep that up with other aspects of my writing; I’ll be pretty happy.

Assignments for the week revolve around creating a story concerning where I currently live and a story from a resident (real or fictional). The story I posted last week would probably get me halfway there but I’m not sure I want to go that route just yet but it feels good to have the option.

This means I’m going to put a stop to some of my reading and get back to some writing. Yeah, yeah, I know that’s an old tune but I have a couple of for real deadlines looming so there you go with that.

By the way, I’m getting married in about 93 hours. You know I am ultra excited when I start breaking it down to smaller units!

Love ya like Papyrus loves cutting down trees!

Nuyorican Angel of Wordsmithing
(Note for a Poet)

I. Nuyorican Aesthetics:

It is a moral imperative to give poetry to the people. It is a media twenty-first century picturetel event when a young poet can read on Unplugged, transferring via MTV the heat of passion. Electronic verse has changed the craft of writing poetry. We can interact live with Tokyo, London and Rome simultaneously; once the poet reaches millions, he/she learns how a verse can heal human pain.

II. Illness, Inspiration and Metaphor:

a. Use the first person instead of the third if it isn’t pathos.
b. Imagining Pain and Pleasure
          i) without becoming maudlin or melodramatic;
          ii) without eliciting pity from the reader; and
          iii) provoke a feeling of interaction between the person who is ill or enraptured (the metaphor-maker) and the reader’s imagination.

III. Cultural Worker: A Humble Servant

IV. Poet’s Burial:

a. Instruction’s for ceremony should be written as a poem.
b. The community walks in a processional honoring its bard.

V. Meditation:

a. Concentration:                          Empty the mind totally.
b. Analytical Concentration:           Put one objective in mind.
                                                   Keep all other concerns out.

© Miguel Algarín
from Love Is Hard Work: Memorias de Loisaida/Poems

in line with last week’s bus stop recap, i had quite the interesting dialogue with a self admitted “homophobic, racist formerly homeless ex-convict of jewish ancestry” over coffee and chai at the local global capitalist café.

this was a bit more of a question and answer session as the gentleman was responding to some of my uninvited sarcasm. among the topics we discussed was his view of asian men, the japanese in particular; thought on religion and subservience; the hypocrisy of discussing socialism while consuming starbucks goods; mentorship and its value in a market driven economy; empathy, or the lack thereof, towards this country’s homeless and incarcerated; the glorification of the exploits of our current service men and the difference between living in an honest and/or truthful country. the last subject set the tone for most of our talk as we kept getting back to the fact that many of these concepts are simply abstracts. yeah, i know, anything can be an abstract and what really counts in the story is the concrete so here is the most concrete thing that went down.

a lil of both, i dont know but i know i didnt do any wrong. before you asked me if i did wrong and i said ‘no’
yeah, well, i was just being kind. what i really wanted to ask you was this: did you willfully break the law? were you in prison because of your own actions or through negative circumstances?
well, yeah… why were you being kind?
its your story and you’re sharing it. it feels rude to just come out and ask ya that.
thanks.
no worries.
yeah, uhhm, i’ll say that it was a little of both. i know what i did was wrong but i was still forced. does that make sense?
of course, its your story.

a lil more happened before and after but a lot of it is a blur at this point. i think i may have been able to talk to the man for quite a few hours but my coffee was done and i had to meet my wife and thats how i roll when it comes to my priorities. ‘sides, i’m a story teller and its only a matter of time before the next person comes up and shares their truth.

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
Poetry Reading and Chapbook Release with Truong Tran’s Writing Workshop
featuring Maile Arvin, Oscar Bermeo, Eleanore Fernandez, Janell Moon, Nirmala Nataraj, Victoria Ngo, Lucie Parker, Michelle Ryan

Join KSW and Truong Tran’s KSW summer 2006 poetry writing workshop for a poetry reading and release of the next in KSW’s chapbook series, with original cover illustration and design by noted cartoonist and APAture 2006 featured artist Thien Pham.

Date/Time: Tuesday, November 14th , 2006; 7 – 9pm

Location: KSW’s space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, San Francisco

Cost: $5

Info: sam@kearnystreet.org; 415.503.0520; www.kearnystreet.org

ima transcribe this as best i can. all ya need to know is that it
happened at the corner grocery store at 7am in the rain as i wait for
my bus to bring me to work.

[Fiction was here. Can now be found at Achiote Seeds, Vol 2 and Points Not Found (Kearny Street Press, 2006).]