Cardboard Castles and Other Amenities...

I am really interested in using different forms of cultural action to help build better communities. Communities are a vital social model, allowing us to tackle problems beyond the ability of individuals with the focus of a defined (usually relatively small) group of people. How do the arts and cultural work in general help communities grow more sustainable futures? If you have a cool website or project or your own ideas on these subjects please let me know.

Monday, November 12, 2012

A Poem: Manifesto

If you put pen
To bright white paper
And challenge the emptiness
To games of touch football
And always try to get back up when the truth nocks you over
And remember to never let other people
Get in the way of a good story
And never let a good story
Get in the way of believing in others
I will call you author

If you scribble on napkins
Sobered reflections of nights past overdrawn
Like you ran out of credit for healthy living
And are just trying to make a budget
With two bucks and a cup of coffee.
Or if find yourself recounting the lessons of one too many
To your journal in a dark corner
Of a party meant for forgetting
I will call you writer

If you string “alone” to “bones” to “home” to “night” to “hope”
And drag them behind you
Running
Like they are a kite you can't give up on
I will call you poet

If you can't leave your mirror at home for fear it will tear up the furniture
And you spent too damn long building your love seat
To see it ripped to shreds by reflections of what they use to call you
And you try to make each moment a declaration
That mirrors are beautiful
When we stand in front of them
I will call you artist

If you remember with each breath
and cast every blink a new scene
in a life-long documentary about love and each snort
is a declaration we don't need things
to get easier and your smile holds the stories of those that came before you
I will call you queer

If you do none of these things
But breath through each day
And try to see yourself as mighty
And try to use that might for that which you believe to be right
I will call you creator

And I will be grateful
For all that will come to be
Through all that you are right now


Seattle, 2012


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