It was like a Billy Joel song: a bottle of red and a bottle of white greeted us at an out of the way wine distribution warehouse.  The space owners were welcoming and the fillmmakers, Rasmus Rasmussen and Joel Telling, were encouraging.  Five other Seattle poets and I performed for three takes, and Rasmus and Joel spun it into gold.  Here’s the result: http://www.anotherpassion.com/2012/video/focus-seattle-poets-oscar-mcnary/#more-2088  Only two of the other videos are finished, but I’m excited about seeing the other five videos.  I am in such good company as an artist in Seattle.  Brilliance is all around me.

Thanks so much to Dane Kuttler http://www.danepoetry.com/ for inviting me to this project, to Rasmus for having me, to Joel for filming as well, and the space, Full Pull Wines, for hosting.  I am honored to be featured.

We are especially looking to fill gaps for books of the Bible we haven’t covered.  Right now, we have a lot of Jesus, Genesis, and Judges.  You are very likely to be included if you write a poem about one of the prophets or epistles. 

We also have a lot of persona poems right now.  While we’re still happy to include them, we would like more variety of device.

You can submit poems to inthebiblicalsenseanthology@gmail.com or

For more info, go to http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php.

I look forward to reading your work!

Example:
Acceptable: Bible character speaks to Planned Parenthood protesters.
Unacceptable: Planned Parenthood protester quotes Leviticus a lot.

After assembling the collection, we will pitch the book to several poetry presses.  We’ve been advised that this is the smartest way to go.  All rights will revert to authors, always.  Just let us know if you’ve managed to publish that piece elsewhere so we can credit it and congratulate you.

SUBMISSION INFO

Submit to: inthebiblicalsenseanthology@gmail.com

DEADLINE now rolling, until we have a full  book.  Every month, we will update contributors on our efforts to publish the collection.

Your submission should contain:
- up to 3 poems, up to 90 lines each, pasted in the body of the email or as .doc or .pdf attachments
- the alluded Bible chapter and verse, as well as what text you’re working from: original Hebrew, original Greek, King James, New Standard, Marriott, Hyatt…
- a subject line that follows the following format: name-title-submission (example: DaneKuttler-TheTreeOfKnowlege-submission)  DO NOT put your name anywhere else in the submission.  We’re flying blind, and we like it that way.

We don’t want bios or cover letters right now.  Isn’t that easy?

PROMPTS!

Rewrite a story from the perspective of minor characters, particularly women.   Examples: Obadiah, Ruth, Naomi, Sarah & Hagar, Miriam, Mary & Martha, Jezebel, etc. . .You may make up names and back stories for unnamed characters.

Employ a well-known Biblical verse form in a context that is relevant to you (Lamentations, Song of Songs, Psalms, Job, the begats in Genesis)

Use a Bible story as an extended metaphor for a present-day phenomenon.

Focus on a specific moment.  What did it sound like, feel like?

Resurrect a character in your city.  How do they react?  How do people treat them?

Put two characters or events in conversation with each other.  In some cases, we might take a Biblical character in conversation with a non-Biblical character.

Write a haiku death match between two Biblical rivals.

Come up with a pseudo-scientific narrative to explain supernatural events.

http://inthebiblicalsense.weebly.com

The most important things I learned:
1.  The rock stars of poetry are usually pretty kind and welcoming.  Being famous and/or skilled at the craft doesn’t make anyone a jerk.  Being a performer doesn’t preclude folks from being thoughtful and genuine.  The community won’t support assholish behavior.  
2.  My writing and performance are national stage calibre. I don’t need to be afraid that my work isn’t good enough.
3.  There is more good poetry in the world than I could ever hear, more kind people than I could ever meet.
4.  Scores have less meaning than I ever imagined.
5.  When people say “poetry family,” they’re not fucking around.

The poetics:
On Saturday night, I went to the Queer Women of Color +Friends dance night at the Midway (it’s all fancy now, but the floors are still delightfully sticky) and heard this brilliant emcee, Micah, perform.  His rhymes were lovingly defiant, and it was a wonderful high-energy way to start off the week!

Before the official events began, Jacob Dinklage and Kirsten (together known as Spider Cider), and I traded poems and songs at my former house, the Burrow, in sunny lower Allston.  Some of my favorites: Jacob’s image connecting the dots to draw himself and a song about appreciating the beauty in everyone’s art, while Kirsten swings the upright bass and vocals.  

On Monday, Erin Jackson and Tony Bee steadfastly hosted an otherwise chaotic opening ceremonies open mic. Favorites from the evening: Erich Hagan’s poem “Dungeon Dragon” about femme masculinity and Casey’s hilarious “Out-Jesus” poem, about one-upping people who try to convert them on the street.  Also, someone called me William Blake after I performed “Lucifer to the Almighty,” which was pretty fucking flattering.

At Tuesday’s rookie open mic, I was floored by Jacob Victorine’s poem “War.”  He draws parallels between hands as the creators of language and weapons, and words as weapons.  Brilliant! That night, I saw Nick Macedo from Hollywood’s Da Poetry Lounge perform a poem on breath and making life worth living, because the breath we take comes from the earth.  I want to hear that poem over and over.  Then, I went to the Slammasters’ Slam, and loved Danny Solis’s piece about  using his experience as a grandfather to empathizewith a bereaved Palestinian father.

On Wednesday morning, I was blessed to go to the slam as a safe space workshop, hosted by Sonya Renee and facilitated by Maureen Benson.  They provided time to have an emotional response to a situation, and then come back and talk about what works and doesn’t work about the situation.  The process was an extremely pragmatic model to analyze a situation and compassionately work through issues.  Wonderdave’s parody poem about saving a woman who loves IV drugs and kittens in hats was brilliant, and needed to be said.  Spoofs can provide some of the best commentary, when they’re done right, and this one was exceptional.  The best thing from the late evening was Stephen Meads’s persona/epistle poem, a letter to Fred Durst from Meatwad of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  I laughed so hard the blood vessels on the back of my head hurt.  I thought I was going to die.

Thursday, the Salt Lake City Team was phenomenal.  I was particularly moved by Gray’s piece “Life in Reverse,” in which he explores undoing all the harm we do to ourselves and each other. The queer reading that night was so inspired and gorgeous, especially Marty McConnell’s thoughtful, spiritual poem about kink.  

Friday, the Write Bloody Showcase: Lauren Zuniga’s poem proclaiming our working of daily miracles was exactly what I needed to hear.  Also, Tara Hardy’s poem about grief, the one that talks about fish growing feet and leaving their family behind, makes me cry every time.  I also laugh loudly every time at Karen Finneyfrock’s “Monster,” about the moody adolescent spring in Seattle.  That night, at group piece finals, Eclectic Truth’s persona piece, from the perspective of cockroaches proclaiming their superiority over humans, was powerfully written and expertly choreographed.  

NUPIC was everything I had been promised.  I was so glad to hear Rachel McKibbens’ “Letter from my Heart to my Brain.”  That poem has comforted me since I lost my beloved friend Liam.  I listened to it on repeat right after he died, and  I was so blessed to hear Rachel perform it in person.  The second half, “Letter from my Brain to my Heart,” added a new dimension to this piece that I love so much.  Sooo gorgeous.  

On Saturday, the rescheduled semifinals with Salt Lake, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Providence, and Oakland was amazing, possibly my favorite show all week.  Highlights were Phil Kaye’s poem about gentrification, which began, “This place is amazing.  This place is amazing.  This place is a maze.”  Later, at finals, Providence brought it, with Jamila Woods’ delightfully crass persona piece“Pigeon Man,”  and Phil Kaye’s poem about semantic satiation, just twisty and gorgeous

And then there was dancing.  I went to three different queer dance parties while in Boston, and oh my, I love to dance!

Although I loved NPS, there were a few things I could have done without.  People brandished the B word around like a pillow at a slumber party. Many men spoke poems about saving women.  The women, according to the men speaking, only do drugs and have too much sex because their daddies didn’t love them enough.  Of course the men poet’s love is so deep, so strong, so true that they could save the women in question, if they would only accept his stalkerish creepdom as the One True Love it obviously represents.  At a Wednesday night cipher, I heard at least three such poems in a row.  The sexism was on stampede, yall.  I didn’t take note of the names or locations of the poets who brought that particular poem to the event, but it was everywhere.

Mostly, I was glad to have been able to go, and I’m excited about going to listen at WOWPS in enver next year, and then NPS again in Charlotte.

Side A: Genesis chapter 32, verses 24 through 30

The prophets foretold the brush of god’s fingertips
would dry my blood in its bed
would famine my center
but I have seen god face to face and my life is preserved
I was left alone in the arboretum,
and there, under the bridge wrestled a man with me
until the breaking of the day.   
I pinned his wrists, just to press against his pushback,
meeting his ferocious, open-mouthed.  
He enticed my fight, hoping to be thrown
we tangled hard on each other’s thighs,
his skin demanded the bite of my teeth,
gripped his hair between my fingers,
and when he saw that he prevailed not against me,
he touched the hollow of my thigh, and I opened for him
and my thigh was out of joint,
but the pain was sweeter than surrender
as I wrestled with him.  
And he said, let me go, for the day breaks
And I said, I will not let you go, unless you bless me,
and he  fell on his knees and blessed me with his mouth until we collapsed into each other, trembling, and he said unto me, “what is your name?”
and I said, “Jacob,”
and he said, “as a prince you have power with god
and with men, and have prevailed.”
and I asked him, “tell me, I pray you, your name.”  
And he said, “why is it that you ask after my name?”  
And he quieted my mouth with blessings until I released him
he gathered himself off the cement
and vanished
I don’t know who that guy was
but I learned with him
god is what we make when two men wrestle

Side B: To a Young Sea Creature

if it is too good to be true,
don’t put your mouth on it
your jaw snaps at every glittering thing
that rubber minnow
that glinting metal
that flailing feather
lure like free meals
All of them will spit hooks through your cheek
reel you up where your gills are no good
only to rip the catch out of your face
sportsman throwback                                                                                                                                                                           slap on the surface                                                                     
your wound absorbing brine
your blood sirening circling sharks

Here’s the lineup:

Side A
Lost ones- Casey Tonnelly
Ex-Factor-Maya Hersh
To Zion- Korvus Blackbird
Doo Wop (That Thing)-Gigi Frazier
Superstar-Jon Joslin
Final Hour-Jeanine Walker
When It Hurts So Bad-Evan Peterson

Side B
I Used to Love Him-Jodie Knowles
Forgive Them Father-Courtney Etienne
Every Ghetto, Every City-Jeremy Springsteed
Nothing Even Matters-Amber Flame
Everything is Everything-Kathleen Nacozy
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill-Gini Hasircioglu
can’t take My Eyes Off of you-Oscar McNary
Sweetest Thing-Naomi Washburn

This show is too good to be true.  Fucking rockstars of poetry, and you should come hear us!  Here’s the info:

It’s Thursday August 4 at 8 p.m. at the Electric Tea Garden, 1402 E Pike St., Seattle.  No cover, but please bring donations for the artists.  And come buy my chapbook, Saran Wrap Leisure Suit.

And I put this collection together for a speaking gig in Eugene, Oregon this coming weekend.  My good friend Ariel Howland, who is an amazing event organizer and promoter, coordinated the Student Insurgent newspaper, the Survival Center, and the Student Cooperative Association to graciously invite me to perform on Saturday, May 21, at 6 p.m. in the Ben Linder Room, Erb Memorial Union, on the University of Oregon Campus, 13th and University St.  Free admission.  If you want to hear some spoken word and you live near Eugene, head on over!

I’m going to perform my best poem so far, Lucifer to the Almighty. So, here it is:

Lucifer to the Almighty

Before Sunrise or Sunset or Season
I seduced you:
Darkness, I am Light
You are nickel and iron and space so distant
I can’t reach between your molecules
I am hydrogen fusing into helium, infinite energy
You could extinguish me with a thought but
I offer 1,001 senses
if you let me warm a corner of you
slow me where I burn too hot
let me map your galactic curves
I can’t fill all your emptiness
but let me linger in your hollows

On the first day
I bared my desires:
I long to create new worlds from our bodies
I’ll carve out my right eye to sun a system
of eight revolving teeth
whittle my shinbone into smaller spheres
to orbit my extracted molars
all twirling bloody wonder
My rays frenzy them as
your outstretched shadows offer rest

Millions of revolutions before this moment
I exclaimed:
Life, like us, emerges in our creation!
They squirm through saliva oceans
choosing to turn left or right

Six thousand revolutions before now
I begged you:
in the garden, I disobeyed
once
Creatures shaped like you crawled
from the bleeding shards of my mouth
I grew the fruit to plant voices within them.
I know you, Almighty
you are trembling that our children will become wiser than we are
Forgive me
Don’t cast me out

One hundred and twenty-seven revolutions ago
I accused you:
You have built millions of electric lightbringers
since I crossed the void to find you, Dust and Emptiness
Your modern angels are more beautiful than me now
My body gapes where I carved out our children
Please stop telling our young ones that I engineer their suffering
You don’t have to love me
You don’t have to take me back
but acknowledge our intertwined timelessness
Darkness, you run scared when I approach flickering meek in a candle flame
Almighty, muster the decency to greet me

Now
I grieve to myself
for six thousand revolutions
I have listened for a faltering syllable
My remaining eye fixates for a welcoming twitch of your eyebrow
My elements are heavy with our separation
Soon, I will be lead and nickel and distance