2013 Albany Word Fest Online Open Mic – Three Poems by Kenyatta Jean-Paul Garcia

WF2013Events-OnlineOpenMic

We are kicking off our 2013 Albany Word Fest Online Open Mic with three poems by poet Kenyatta Jean-Paul Garcia. Garcia is the author of This Sentimental Education and Enter the After-Garde.   He was raised in Brooklyn, NY and has a degree in Linguistics from SUNY Albany.  He was a cook for a dozen years but now spends his nights putting boxes on shelves.  By day, he runs two websites, kjpgarcia.wordpress.com and altpoetics.wordpress.com.

Better Ending

Oceans are a continuation of sky
drenched and impatient
with brine
in its teeth

On brackish waves
whispers are lost

While sacrifices never forgotten

* * *

Stream and rhythm
are one in
morphological past

And there are other words
from dead languages
seen only in
memories of transliterations
passed over.

No language is dead
so much as hidden.

Words like to run
and do best
when detached from
black skin of text.

Clay left with stylus pressings
are footprints
of sounds getting away.

* * *

Mist is metaphor
being carried
with a tribute to Eurydice
and Lot’s wife.

Tired of song and sermon
salt seemed
a better ending.

There Are Places

there are places

where even

sand sings

bel(le) ami(e)

through

wind’s reminding

under stars.

it wasn’t snowing

upon meeting

though connection

keeps coming

down

until

“rinsed by dreams”         (Zagajewski)

Begins By

Surgery begins by severing

* * *

Petrarch is worthless without Laura

and if only

Virgil could have kept Dante

stranded in the lower levels

it would have

saved the world

a lot of

ugliness

* * *

Cold, dark, passive

has a residence

here

Pushed away by light –

hot and active –

angered by shade

Downtrodden again – as always – as though birth itself began as boring

* * *

Lace streets

keep closed the city’s corset

while propping up

assets

less and less envied

with by and by

eras.

* * *

Cleaved?

No, flat?

Desire increases anyway

with senses divided

among themselves.

 

All throughout Word Fest week, Albany Poets will be publishing local poetry on the website in what we are calling the Word Fest Online Open Mic. Poets who wish to participate are encouraged to send their poems and a brief bio to albanypoets@gmail.com with “Online Open Mic” in the subject line.

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