Rhyme Time: Blogger Joins Poets on SDPB and at JazzFest

jazz haiku

to be or not—ha!
i know the answer—easy:
do. be. do be do.

With apologies to Shakespeare and Sinatra, I'm switching literary gears for a couple days: I'm putting on my poet's cap to perform some original poems on SDPB and at JazzFest!

Tomorrow at noon I will have the pleasure of joining USD's Norma Wilson on SDPB's "Food for Thought" to talk poetry with Julia Monczunski. We'll read some poems, talk about inspiration and versification, and plug the Poetry Tent at JazzFest! That's where Wilson and I will be rapping out poems Saturday afternoon along with a bunch of other South Dakota poets.

The JazzFest Poetry Tent opens Saturday at 2 p.m. with open reading—if you've got rhymes, raps, or any other form of poetical musings, the stage is yours! Then at 4 p.m., the featured readers take the stage. Norma Wilson and I will be performing, along with Dee Nelson, David Evans, Jr., and South Dakota poet laureate (and one of my old SDSU profs!) David Allan Evans. And at 6 p.m., the big Poetry Slam! There's real money here: best slam poet wins $200!

There's no formal program for the featured readers—heck, as I look through my stack of poems, I'm still not sure which ones I'll read. I'll probably bring extra and just go with the mood of the crowd. Check out a sample of David Allan Evans's work, including his classic "Pole Vaulter." Below is one of mine. Enjoy... and come groove at JazzFest!

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Flyover

Alone, a grey evening, whispering spring only in the lateness of the light,
Booms over the prairie
A single jet
Low but hidden by speed and cloud and looming night.
A human being (no longer may we assume a man)
A fellow being sits alone tonight
That one above me, roaring through featureless sky
Awash in the instrument panel glow
Holding steady the screaming engined magic trick
Of metal wings and explosives balanced on rushing air
She passes over (a she! could be!) a thousand lives
Forgotten in a few seconds by all but the youngest or least distracted
She flies tonight, practicing magic
By hydraulics and computer and push of a button
Tricks unseen over empty snowy fields
Over first thaw puddles refreezing for the night
Ice unrattled by her dragon rumble.