Finals of Copa Poética this Friday Night, 8-10pm in Highland Park

This Friday, July 11th, I'll be reading alongside some of the most dynamic poets in Los Angeles for the last of the Copa Poética series, looking to capture some of the spirit and energy of the World Cup in words.

For the series, I've been writing a new form I am calling the XI (and 11-lined poem).

The most recent post over on Manipulated Bestiary (my poem a week for a year book project) is a tribute to Miroslav Klose, the player with the most World Cup goals in history who will be playing this Sunday in the finals.

XI: Klose - Die Mannschaft

The years swim back to you, brightening
your implacable wisdom with strength

Do you not stand at the edge of the sky
with your nervous arms extended invoking a personal
God to breathe a wind into your empty heart
like the rest of us? Exchanging your being with
the terrible angels wheeling overhead one exhaled breath
at a time? The winds gnaw at your face

the time you move through is the time of monument
and story, grain for grain exchanging marble for stone
we outlive our own lives in your softening cheek.

Poesia Para La Gente - Poetry on the LA Metro Red Line

On Sunday afternoon, June 30th, several poets met to ride the LA Metro and at each stop and along the way shared their poems and spoken word with fellow Angelenos. There were many poems and tales, but for the sake of expediency I chose just one poem from each poet to include in the video.

Poesia Para La Gente (Poetry for the People) is a program that brings poetry to the people of the community, in non-traditional places. Some of these places have been affected, in one way or another, by economical hardship or various forms of social stigmas. All locations are unique in providing a safe setting for uninhibited artistic expression.

Poesia Para La Gente is a program of the Avenue 50 Studio's monthly La Palabra Poetry. The program has been made possible by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
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WHY THE LA METRO? 

Our goal is to share poetry with the community, outside of our choir and into the streets in order to encourage, nurture, and stimulate artistic expression every which way we can, and every where we can. By providing a welcoming, and non-traditional public platform for sharing the power of the spoken word, we hope to stimulate cultural understanding within the diverse population of the North East Los Angeles area...and beyond. 
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featuring:
Billy Burgos
Yago Cura
Sean Hill
Karineh Mahdessian (email)
Ryan Nance (me, here)
Conney Williams

Hosted by Jessica Ceballos