My 30th poem of 30 celebrating National Poetry Month.
Archive for the ‘National Poetry Month’ Category
30 MORNINGS
In National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 30, 2017 at 11:28 amWon’t Stop
In austin music scene, Being A Poet, Being A Writer, Being An Artist, Charlie O'Hay, hometown, Jim Trainer, Lamont B. Steptoe, music performance, National Poetry Month, new journalism, news media, on tour, Performance, Philadelphia, poem, Poetry, poetry reading, publishing, publishing poetry, punk rock, self-publishing, singer songwriter, singer-songwriter, Spoken Word, TOUR, travel, travel writing, working class, Writing, writing about writing, WRITING PROCESS on April 13, 2017 at 2:35 pm…to live outside the law, you must be honest…
-Bob Dylan, Absolutely Sweet Marie
It’s a good thing I don’t care about what you think then, isn’t it?
-Your Writer on Facebook this week
Last week on Writing On The Air cohost Martha Louise Hunter asked me where I get the time to do it all. God bless her. We were talking about this blog and how 600 words a week is the least I can do if I’m going to call myself a writer.
“Of course there’s Letter Day,” I told her and cohost Joe Brundige, “and I’m posting a poem every day for the month of April celebrating National Poetry Month.”
I told them that All in the wind was book 2 of the 10 that will be published through Yellow Lark Press, beginning with September in 2015 and ending with a collection, as-yet-unnamed, in 2025.
“10 books in 10 years is great, a fine goal,” I went on. “-but I’m only making up for lost time.”
Brother Joe and I share a symmetry, and experience the joy of communication that can happen between two stringently honest people. It took appearing on the show twice for me to realize-I am doing the thing. It’s good when that happens, as opposed to the slave driving I’m usually doing with myself and the crippling feelings of despair anyone reading this blog is, by now, all too familiar with.
I finally booked Boston. I’ll be speaking at the Middle East Corner with the Reverend Kevin O’Brien and bussing down to Philly the day after, for the Philly release of All in the wind. Joe and I recorded an episode of Chillin Tha Most at the mansion last week, and it should be on the net next Thursday. Last week was the kind of week I’d like to have every week, with gigs and radio appearances almost every day. I kept on pushing till the light of day. Which is heaps different than the life I’m living in my head, where it’s never enough and I’m only a day working coward. What’s next is complicated but simple in terms of intent.
I’m quitting this gig. Moving out to the east side. Minimizing. Scaling down. I’m not sure how it will look or how to even vaguely monetize poetry and the spoken word-but I’m full of ideas and already making half my imminent rent with the gigs I’m already playing. It’s strange to be striking out now but hardly unlikely. I’ve long since abandoned anything resembling the common tropes of being an American. I don’t have any kids, don’t even have a girlfriend. But I’ve got a passion for media and all forms of communication. I hope to get further invested in print and broadcast media. Before I fly out to Beantown the MAMU should be fully assembled and my next purchase will be a touring vehicle.
It took me a while to wrap my head around it. I had to keep it to myself and it made me resentful. I couldn’t talk about my plans on here, there was some bad blood about me leaving but there doesn’t have to be. I’ve started paying my taxes, I got a new dentist and a healthy line of credit. Everything is moving as it should. My next venture will be some time researching topics for the blog, so’s to avoid the kind of soul searching pap and whine that she hates and can appear on Going For The Throat when its weekly deadline is on my neck. Your ideas are welcome, as are paying gigs-do you have a story for me? Can we find a way to pay my freight so I can come to your town, speak and play? Please chime in, in the comments below, or drop me a line at: jamesmichaeltrainer@gmail.com.
This east coast jaunt will be a short one but I’m thrilled to be sharing the stage with the Reverend Kevin O’Brien, Duncan Wilder Johnson, The Droimlins, and Jim Healy in Boston. The Philly release of All in the wind is stacked, with award winning poets Charlie O’Hay and Lamont Steptoe reading. By the time I go back to work I’ll have played at least 3 shows on the east coast, sold some books and burned hundreds of miles. I’ll be exhausted, which is how I like it, and plan to be in the coming months. Into it, no stops, full bore.
See you on the East Coast motherfucker.
TOURDRIVER#3
In National Poetry Month, on tour, poem, Poetry, TOUR, Uncategorized on May 24, 2016 at 11:44 pmRita the real estate agent
met you in the lobby of the Westin
on the 4th of July
the boys had been calling me all night
the light rig on the trailer was shredded
we’d have to travel by day
and even then we’d be lucky
not to get pulled over
I ate a 20 bag for breakfast
washed it down with a couple Coors Lites
you gave me your card and told me to call you
if I was ever back in town
I haven’t thought about you
since that terrible morning
the highways lined with troopers
the country marching off to war
crawling back to New Orleans
on the 4th of July.
Poem 21b/30, written for National Poetry Month on 4/21/15 at 11:05:19 pm.
Shrieks from Paradise, Correspondence&Rails#28: Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review
In Being A Poet, Being A Writer, Being An Artist, Letter Writing, National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, poetry submission, publishing, Submitting, submitting poetry, Writing, writing about writing, WRITING PROCESS on April 29, 2016 at 10:08 amDear Jim,
Congratulations! Our literary panel would like to publish “Oxbloods ‘neath the Cuff” and “Passage” in the spring edition of FLAR. “Memo From The Crematorium Desk” is still under consideration by our panel, and I will let you know as soon as I am able whether they will publish it, too. Thank you for sharing your work with us. I will be in touch closer to May about publication.
Best,
With gratitude,
A.E. Bayne
Editor in Chief
Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review
Read the issue here!
EUNUCH BLUES (18 of 30)
In Being A Poet, Being A Writer, National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE, Writing, writing about writing on April 18, 2016 at 10:23 pmpanhandling the muse
slipshod
black ribbon blues.
up with the machine
editing
on a computer screen.
laying down at night
time fucking me better
than you ever could.
30b/30 (2 of 2)
In Jim Trainer, National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 30, 2015 at 6:16 pmthere’s been a break
between that old battling life
and this one
I can’t begin to describe
the anguish I was in for years
but it looks like I won’t have to
it’s from here, in this
sublime and ordinary life
that I can see
all my brothers and sisters are not free
it is from here, high up
on this peak
that I can see
the range
30a/30 (1 of 2)
In Jim Trainer, National Poetry Month, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 30, 2015 at 6:07 pmIT’S A WRAP
I sent her roses once
and she asked me if I sent them
I asked her who else would’ve,
we were in a monogamous relationship
and it was a simple question
but it angered her
“OH SO IT WAS A TRAP AND YOU’RE TRYING TO CATCH
ME IN A LIE. YOU CAN’T EVEN SEND ROSES RIGHT!”
I hadn’t even considered that someone else might send her roses,
let alone try and catch her in a lie.
Sitting here this morning,
way past when I should be thinking about her,
I realize
it was a lie,
a lie of deflection and projection,
blaming me for not sending roses right-
a big ruse.
She was deflecting the question
and put the focus on blaming me somehow,
which sums up our whole relationship.
We saw each other for another 2 months after that
but I never sent her roses again.
29/30
In Jim Trainer, media, National Poetry Month, news media, poem, Poetry, police brutality, revolution, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 29, 2015 at 1:29 pmdo you remember the revolution?
those simpatico highwire nights manning the phones,
those bright&proud mornings canvassing the streets,
our many voices, our one voice-LOUD
on every corner
joined arm in arm, locked in song, singing,
do you remember feeling like we were winning,
we could win
and the innate goodness of man would prevail?
me neither
but there was this show on t.v. about it,
came on last night after Wolf Blitzer
I highly recommend it.
28/30
In Jim Trainer, media, National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, police brutality, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 28, 2015 at 1:13 pmyou go!
on Facebook
use your voice
on social media
get loud and be heard
rally and wear down the resistance
post after post
further the national conversation
stand firmly on the right side of history
it’ll all come out in the wash
brothers&sisters
our efforts will not be in vain
I believe in a future
where all our children can watch
as Facebook offers “A Look Back”,
a movie compiling all our proud posts,
our moments in the struggle
fighting
hitting enter, clicking ‘Like’.
27/30
In Broken Heart, Jim Trainer, National Poetry Month, poem, Poetry, THIRTY FOR THIRTY CHALLENGE on April 27, 2015 at 7:33 pmevery day worn out with the wrong reason
for this
every attempt to save it somehow, vetted
for this
I sit by the window drinking coffee
and it’s easy
I buy roses from Billy on the corner
and it’s good
walking into the setting sun
pretending I can feel it rise in Hong Kong
feeling you out there, somewhere
behind me
walking the kind streets of my new city
alone
Going for the Throat 