Reading, mainly from Shez, at Busboys and Poets in Arlington, VA on 12/18/2011
Reading at Busboys and Poets 12/18/2011
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Tag Archives: my poems
Performances page is open!
I’ve finally gotten my act together (thanks to the joy that is Woot and my new flip video camera) and begun posting audio and video clips of my readings. Look for the “Performances” tab at the top, or click here.
The first clips up are from my reading at Women’s Spoken Word series at Moonstone Arts Center in Philadelphia on November 16th.
Enjoy!
New work up at Adanna Literary Journal
I’m one of the featured poets for the special page on women’s poems about our bodies. Read all the poems, they’re great!
Merchandise Table is Open!
I’ve finally joined the late 20th Century and opened a merchandise area on my blog. You can find it here: Merchandise
New this month are two Poem Cards – beautiful, glossy, 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 double-sided post cards, each with one of my poems set against a striking image. They would look great on your desk, your wall, framed, or as gifts. They are $5.00, with special pricing for buying 3 or more.
More coming soon!
"Bound, I descend" Poem Card
Cicada Poem Card
A Little Ditty for Dancing with the Stars
A Little Ditty for Dancing with the Stars
Elliott batTzedek
You’re an asshole, Nancy Grace
I flinch when I see your accusatory face
or even your right breast, hanging out.
About your character I have no doubt,
for you called for the lynching of a disturbed young mother.
So I’d be afraid now, too, if I were your choreographer.
National Coming Out, 1987
National Coming Out, 1987
Elliott batTzedek
Swallowing charcoal swill
I,I,I, couldn’t say why she took the pill
bottle instead of the pill,
only that I
didn’t mean to die.
She, the smart girl, always so smart,
oh how she burst apart
heart’s juice run thin
mopped up off
the kitchen floor
with unused tickets for the bus to DC.
Instead she’d agreed to see
my parents. Why? I,I,I
didn’t want to die, talked us out
of the ER,
while she was still vomiting bile. I found
my rigid back, my prescribed smile, checked
us out to watch the marchers on the mall
chanting Come out, come out,
wherever you are!
For 25 years I’ve been a dyke, still hiding
what makes me queer, playing sleight
of hand so she and I,I,I will disappear,
folding them inward
and inward again.
Tisha B’Av – Reconsidering Lamentations 5
1Remember, O Lord,
what is come upon us.
Consider and behold our disgrace.
2Our inheritance
has been turned over to strangers,
Our houses to aliens.
Lamentations 5
פרק ה
א זְכֹ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ מֶֽה־הָ֣יָה לָ֔נוּ הַבִּ֖יטָ [הַבִּ֖יטָה] וּרְאֵ֥ה אֶת־חֶרְפָּתֵֽנוּ:
ב נַֽחֲלָתֵ֨נוּ֙ נֶֽהֶפְכָ֣ה לְזָרִ֔ים בָּתֵּ֖ינוּ לְנָכְרִֽים:
1Pay heed, O Lord,
to what we bring upon us
consider and behold our disgrace
2When we live from the inheritance of others
When we claim homes and lands as ours alone
and claim any people are alien.
Elliott batTzedek
Tisha B’Av in Palestine
Tisha B’Av in Palestine
Elliott batTzedekHomes destroyed.
Orchards flattened.
Buses and markets and buildings
and children
bombed.
Water tanks overturned,
and water, the breath of life to the desert,
spilled into the cracks of the dry and desperate Av earth.May I build a house on my land?
No
May I travel from here to here
without fear?
No
May I have any assurance that my children will grow up
to be neither killed nor killers?
No
May I demand any way other than defend or destroy,
pillage or starve?
No
How many times did Pharoh say
No
before he became irrelevant?Destruction after destruction after destruction;
It is time for history to record
someone saving Jerusalem.
This is one small part of an entire Tisha B’Av liturgy I’ve created that combines Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian voices all reflecting on the experience of exile. In the pieces, poems and liturgy speak back and forth to one another until the voices blend, a chorus of loss, yearning, and dreams of home. If you’d like a copy, drop me a note or post here.
My poem is up at Split This Rock!
Yeah! I made Poem of the Week for Split This Rock, an amazing biennial festival of poetry of protest and provocation, held in D.C.
Until then, you can read my poem “Sunday Afternoon as the Oil Pours into the Gulph” here
Read more about Split This Rock by clicking here The next gathering is March 2012 – See you there!
April 30 – If you sit in the woods
If you sit in the woods
If you sit in the woods long enough
nothing happens
just the earth’s breath climbing and descending
the tree trunks copper-green in morning light
just your own body warming this spot of earth
your own heart beating
And you begin, like all creatures,
to repeat yourself—
the same ragged thoughts rasping
over and over,
the same yearnings rising like the tails
of startled squirrels
This Frenzy 