Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Commercials and Poetry: How Levis has been giving me the shivers

A little while back, I did a blog post on The Beats, it was Jack K's b-day on that day. I included a clip of Tom Waits reading, "The Laughing Heart." G-damn I love that poem.

And then later, I was sitting in the movie theatre, a few months ago, and I literally almost jumped out of my seat when I saw Levi's had done a commercial, "Go Forth..." that featured Bukowski's poem.

But a few moments ago, I was watching a friend's vlog (The Vlog Poet's Channel) and one of the videos talked about poetry in the news... film and media. I was reminded of the commercial again and wanted to share it:



"Be on the watch... the Gods will offer you chances, know them. Take them."

It really is great to see poetry moving into the mainstream, whether viewers realize it or not. Because I do believe, we ought wear poetry the way we wear jeans.

Thank you, Levi's.

And another favorite:



Jeans and poetry. Love and Sex. And strange love... God how that idea grips me... because writing is some strange love, after all.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Return to (a post on self-help for myself...a vent really)



I love it. I love poetry. So why haven't I been letting it permeate my life? Why haven't I been dedicating myself to it? I want to give myself reasons, thus making my problem "public" "bloglic.. public..." (I have a cold and my thoughts are blending together.)

1. I feel broken record-ish.

2. I just want to watch T.V.

3. Grading. I ought to be grading.

4. Does my work feel boring somehow? Or am I just missing a semblance of a writing community?

5. I need a good, independent coffee shop to go to.

6. Job hunting for full time work or supplemental part time work. It takes time.

I need to change something. Maybe write long hand instead of on the computer. Maybe re-focus myself.

I need to, we all need to:

1. Trust my body of revised work and send it out for publications.

2. Revise.

3. Seek advise from writing friends.

4. Re-visit my manuscript and re-shop the market.

5. Let go of timelines. Then create timelines.

6. Become capable of turning negative feelings into positive feelings.

(Lists should always come in 6's.)