POETRY AS A WAY OF LIFE

“Poetry As A Way of Life”—A longtime slogan and likely to be the title of my last poetry book years from now. This will be a collection of writings focused on my poetry experimental performances. These often take years to unfold: “Poems Form/From the Six Directions” took about 3-5 years; the “Blurbed Book Project” is still ongoing (though with a hiatus) after it was launched 18 years ago; “Murder Death Resurrection” is now in its 6th year; the “hay(na)ku” is celebrating its 15th year anniversary; "The 1,146th FairyTale" unfolded over a year (2017) and will be continued in 2019; and I just launched yesterday the first manifestation of a new “Z” project which I began conceptualizing over 5 years ago. Z is likely to continue for at least another decade if not longer. While there is immense satisfaction in creating a single spot-on verse poem, I love these poetry performances that often unfold in the unstable public arena—a space I treasure specifically for its instability (as unfixed as identity). The latest “Z” includes a series of “Death Hay(na)ku Poems” (inspired by Japanese death poems).  Here’s one of the “lighter” (haha) ones, illustrated with my beloved dog Achilles who I miss strongly. every. day.:

DH #2

Familiar, joyous barking—

We’ll meet

Again