Transforming with Poetry Open Word Screen Poetry Performance:
Rotations. A Poem by Gary Beck
‘Learning Curve’ is an unpublished collection concerned with the decline of Western civilization: Gary Beck
We do not know why we are born
because we cannot question
until we have maturity
and relearn curiosity
to seek answers from elders.
And if we do not know wise men
we must search confusing books.
The need for understanding
does not affect everyone,
preoccupied with daily tasks
to provide food, shelter, clothing,
to their loved ones, dependents,
while those elected, appointed
to serve the people, the nation
do not always do their duty.
In the clash of interests
between the haves and have nots
rulers usually decide
in favor of the privileged,
whose wealth, resources, influence
allows retention of power
for cooperating leaders.
When we come into the world
without the means of advancement
we are creatures of coincidence,
nothing assuring accomplishments
except brains, talent, acquired skills,
opportunity discovered
by accident, luck, chance,
a haphazard path to the future.
Those dissatisfied with status quo,
demanding comprehension
of the forces that control us
are destined to be exiles
from the comforts of the system,
malcontents identified,
opponents to a sterile life.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his published books include 26 poetry collections, 10 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays and 1 collection of one-act plays. Published poetry books include: Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations, Rude Awakenings, The Remission of Order, Contusions and Desperate Seeker (Winter Goose Publishing. Forthcoming: Learning Curve and Ignition Point). Earth Links, Too Harsh For Pastels, Severance, Redemption Value and Fractional Disorder (Cyberwit Publishing). His novels include a series ‘Stand to Arms, Marines’: Call to Valor, Crumbling Ramparts and Raise High the Walls (Gnome on Pig Productions) and Extreme Change (Winter Goose Publishing). Wavelength (Cyberwit Publishing). His short story collections include: A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing) and Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories (Wordcatcher Publishing). The Republic of Dreams and other essays (Gnome on Pig Productions). The Big Match and other one act plays (Wordcatcher Publishing). Collected Plays of Gary Beck Volume 1 (Cyberwit Publishing. Forthcoming: Plays of Aristophanes translated, then directed by Gary Beck). Gary lives in New York City. https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGaryBeck
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)
My Birthday Wish | Poem by David Michael Jackson
My birthday wish poem,
dropped into a box,
like a vote waiting to be counted,
a wish,
to just get along,
to notice the clouds in the night sky,
and see things the darkness between them,
to play games with children,
and give them an extra kick, another shot,
and let them be a ringer,
“That kid’s got it!”,
a wish to make that snapshot,
that one image captured,
for a lifetime
left in the mind to see again and wonder.
A perfect wish
left in a box of words
…David Michael Jackson
YouTube Poets
Description
We are a group of poets making a TV pilot for a documentary about presenting our poetry on YouTube. We hope to approach a mainstream TV channel with the finished pilot, and may upload a complete documentary after the first few versions have been added here. This channel will be shared with participating poets and those poets who wish to submit work for consideration to be added to the documentary. The poet in the inset photo is Nordette Adams. I am Sara Russell, aka pinkyandrexa, and I will be editing the different versions of The YouTube Poets video until we have a final version that everyone is happy with. Please visit the link below the video to subscribe and send us your on You Tube Poems
You Tube Poets Channel see also YouTube Poets http://www.twitter.com/PoetsTube to follow
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)
Janet Kuypers’ Book Readings 1/3/18 in Community Poetry @ Half Price Books
January 3rd marked a January 2018 Book Release Reading of new books from Scars Publications, which saw the release of the books “the End of the World” from cc&d magazine; and “Farewell to Seafaring” from Down in the Dirt magazine. In his reading, Janet Kuypers read performance art poetry material from the show “Meant to do Big Things” that appeared in cc&d magazine’s book, and haiku as well as poetry from “Farewell to Seafaring”. Janet Kuypers also read material from the 2018 Scars Publications collection books that were recently released, and was able to share haiku and poetry. In separate readings, she read her poetry from the Down in the Dirt September-January 2018 issue collection book “the Light in the Sky”; Janet Kuypers also read from the cc&d September-January 2018 issue collection book “Language of Untamed Spirit” — during this fourth reading she was also able to end the readings with 3 haiku from the poetry and prose collection anthology “On a Rainy Day”, all read for the Community Poetry @ Half Price Books reading in Austin.
There is also a YouTube playlist of the videos of this show, and a Scars Publications web page with links to many video performances from this book store reading.
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, with “exterior”, “soul”, “earth”, “lost (2017)”, “jumped”, “essence”, “Exempt from the Draft”, “Only an Observer”, “You Know What I’m Talking About (2016 grateful edition)”, “upside-down”, “enjoy”, “imprisoned / ignorance”, “Elusive Imaginary Creature”, “Masquerade”, “knife (2014)”, “ghosts”, “easy”, “falling”, “xeric”, “instead”, and “Earth was Alive and Dying” from the Down in the Dirt magazine’s 9-12 2017 issue collection book “the Light in the Sky” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, with “exterior”, “soul”, “earth”, “lost (2017)”, “jumped”, “essence”, “Exempt from the Draft”, “Only an Observer”, “You Know What I’m Talking About (2016 grateful edition)”, “upside-down”, “enjoy”, “imprisoned / ignorance”, “Elusive Imaginary Creature”, “Masquerade”, “knife (2014)”, “ghosts”, “easy”, “falling”, “xeric”, “instead”, and “Earth was Alive and Dying” from the Down in the Dirt magazine’s 9-12 2017 issue collection book “the Light in the Sky” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “January 2018 Book Release Reading” feature through “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books”, reading her poems “Years, Centuries, Eons”, “violation”, “Your Imaginary Soul Weighs 21 Grams”, “unbounded”, and “quarrel” from the cc&d 9/12 2017 issue collection book anthology “Language of Untamed Spirit”, before reading her 3 haiku poems “eventually”, “enemies” and “blood” from the 2017 Scars Publications poetry and prose collection book anthology “On a Rainy Day” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “January 2018 Book Release Reading” feature through “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books”, reading her poems “Years, Centuries, Eons”, “violation”, “Your Imaginary Soul Weighs 21 Grams”, “unbounded”, and “quarrel” from the cc&d 9/12 2017 issue collection book anthology “Language of Untamed Spirit”, before reading her 3 haiku poems “eventually”, “enemies” and “blood” from the 2017 Scars Publications poetry and prose collection book anthology “On a Rainy Day” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, with “Only Half the Story”, “lost”, “rush”, & “you were meant” from the Down in the Dirt 1/18 book “Farewell to Seafaring”, then her poem “My Brain Was (2017 Streamline)” from the cc&d 1/18 book “the End of the World” (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, with “Only Half the Story”, “lost”, “rush”, & “you were meant” from the Down in the Dirt 1/18 book “Farewell to Seafaring”, then her poem “My Brain Was (2017 Streamline)” from the cc&d 1/18 book “the End of the World” (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, reading her “Meant to do Big Things” poems “Athena”, “a man calls a woman”, “Diane Talking About her Trip to Mexico City”, “cover”, & “Echo in my Mind” from the cc&d 1/18 book “the End of the World” to people live (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers at her 1/3/18 “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading, reading her “Meant to do Big Things” poems “Athena”, “a man calls a woman”, “Diane Talking About her Trip to Mexico City”, “cover”, & “Echo in my Mind” from the cc&d 1/18 book “the End of the World” to people live (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Threshold filter).
 See photos of Janet Kuypers reading from the recently released cc&d 9/12 2017 issue collection book anthology “Language of Untamed Spirit” 1/3/18 during the “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin reading. |
 See photos of Janet Kuypers reading from Down in the Dirt’s 9-12 2017 issue anthology “the Light in the Sky” that was just released (that has the “wedding ring” total eclipse of the sun 8/21/17 to on the front cover) 1/3/18 @ “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books. |
 See photos of Janet Kuypers reading from the recently released Down in the Dirt 1/18 perfect-bound paperback book “Farewell to Seafaring” 1/3/18 during the “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading. |
 See photos of Janet Kuypers reading from the recently released cc&d 1/18 book “the End of the World” (with a mainland Antarctica cover photo) 1/3/18 during her “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” Austin feature reading. |
The “January 2018 Book Release Reading” series of multiple book through “Community Poetry @ Half Price Books” in Austin, TX, also has a Scars Publications web page for this show, which contains video, poetry, and photography links.