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Poetry, Soup, Poetry

February 1, 2005 · Posted in Uncategorized

Ahhhh, poetry… Words have such amazing power. I started writing poetry when I was 8 and stopped when I was 10 because I started to read other people’s poetry and decided that I had nothing to add. Kids
Really loved reading poetry for many years, but then became continuously disillusioned with it as much of what was being written was more intellectual masturbation than anything that – as Goethe suggested – could give us glimpses of the numinous in nature and in ourselves…
Lately, thanks to my friend Stosh, I have rediscovered my love for it, and have even written some here or there… Stosh moved here from Chicago, where I met him, and where poetry is read like firetrucks. Although there are some really great venues in LA that have a whole variety of poetry to offer (my favorite so far is New Earth’s open mic on Mondays), Stosh and I decided to throw our own last year. I made a vat of soup, and he invited a bunch of poets. We had several of those and tons of fun last year and had all kinds of additional entertainment, from handstand acrobatics to meditations with sound bowls by my friend Lahra, didgeridoos, music by my friend Mark from Cool Dry Place, as well as by my friends Chris and Thomas… Quite a trip… When I left on mine I was afraid there would be no more PoetrySoup after my departure to Switzerland. Fortunately, Stosh and my new delightful friend Carlye picked up the ball and ran with it.
Coming back to LA this month I was greeted with an invitation to a PoetrySoup at Carlye’s place. She has a most lovely place perfect for gatherings of that kind, her and her husband are amazing and gracious hosts, and they even have a trampolin in their backyard, which was quite a success at the party as you might imagine… Altogether, it was a most lovely PoetrySoup event. There was tons of inspiring poetry, laughter and mindful conversation, and I got to make soup (Yam and Carrot with Orange/Pineapple – very Californian). Have a pile of pictures to sift through, but the above was funny, as it is a typical kitchen party scene, only in this case with a bunch of intent listeners
Look forward to the next one already. Looks like I might be in LA for a while after all. Too much going on here… So much for a three month Sabbatical Maybe next time?