As I have mentioned many times one of my favorite forms is the ghazal. I work hard to really express myself through this form and I will be honest and state that I am just a novice in this form. Ironically one of the forms that I actually 'hate' is the sonnet. Maybe because it was the primary form (besides haiku) that was drilled into us in school.
Imagine my suprise when I found out that the Ghazal is probably the progenitor of the Sonnet.
Here's an interview that I did at Originalthoughtmag.com. You know I like language so this is an interview of the Nahuatl language. As a writer language is my tool so the more I learn the more I rock it. Check it out.
Our guest Metztli Tekpatl graduated from UCD wth a BA in International Relations-Social Sciences and another BA in Native American Studies with a minor in Spanish. She has a Masters from Scaramento State in Spnish/Foreign Languges and is currently working on a second Masters in Management at Scaramento State. She is fluent in various languages, Spanish and Nahuatl amongst them.
What is Nahuatl? Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan, or Nahuan, branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. All Nahuan branch languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica and are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua people, most of whom live in Central Mexico. It is the Indigneous language of modern day Mexico.
Uto-Aztecan (also Uto-Aztekan) is a Native American language family. It is one of the largest (both in geographical extension and number of languages) and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona), through western, central and southern Mexico (incl. Sonora, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Durango, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Morelos, Estado de México, and the Federal District), and into parts of Central America (Pipil in El Salvador; extinct varieties in Guatemala and Honduras). Utah is named after the indigenous Uto-Aztecan Ute people. Classical Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and its modern relatives are part of the Uto-Aztecan family.
Metztli Takpatl will be sharing with us her insight int the Nahuatl language dealing with such topics as
*It being the lingua franca of the Aztec Empire *Its place in modern day Mexico *How is it distinct amongst word languages *The relationship of language to a people's liberation
word The word made Fresh Aromatic B-boy stance in the beginning slang B prismatic, fractured light post up flesh word clammy, tingles under fizzing bulbs flesh wound cement carpets nicks from bricks gangs giving up Stygian sting clips zip guns, blades that switch step in shelled shoes with obese laces kangol hats primped and creased inundate late night streets with James Brown beats
Pretty Bronx eyes Play (Black)Spades cause (Black)Spades to play Yes I can dig (dug) it all in together as we wreck rec rooms statuesque speakers speak beat (streets) sound of my feet back room dusty crate greets as we liberate a deluge of vinyl during summer heat
Pretty Bronx Eyes you keep holding on to thoughts of rejection pretty bronx/river eyes belay streams (baby got) back alleys spew your aura's extrospection whole world wants to be down go down on you
Pretty Bronx Eyes media rock frenzy extraction scratches only surface spitting pop(ular) music perversions seeks only to take notice of your clothes their eyes closed to your creative contours, soft shimmer in your skin they don't notice your eyes i see them Pretty Bronx Eyes in them I see me
No, I haven't crossed the golden line where 100% of my income is from totally writing influenced jobs yet I can see it clearly. There are many options out there for you to make your passion your profit.
Freelance writing: Have to be on your grind and check sites on the daily (I have a few below for ya). It can be anything from ghost writing a paper, doing an ad, to copywrite work.
Blogging: If you got skills and fresh blog you can get it sponsored. Get paid per post or per word. You can also link into a revenue share program.
Writing Profession Jobs: Online or hard copy magazines, journals or periodicals. Become a contributing writer, editor, copywriter, etc
Publish your work: Grind and produce a book. Get it out there. Push it
Work the contest circuit: There are constant poetry, short story and novel contest. Enter them frequently. If you are a good writer you have a greater chance of winning them rather than Powerball.
Those are just off the dome. Yet what they all involve is you writing frequently to perfect your craft.
On the real. Those who knowledge me realize that the last couple of weeks has been intense. Alot of it though with the sense of amazement I am feeling. Due to alot of factors Perihelion Baby is selling at a ridiculous rate. To give you some idea within the last couple of weeks I have sold over 150 copies! It's like y'all got some fever or something! This has been highly due to the efforts of alot of my alikes who have been slangin' it like a mixtape.
Perihelion isn't until around the Gregorian New Year yet I'm feeling it NOW! Next month I already told you about the book signing on the 28th in New Haven. Two other book signings are in the works in New London and Hartford so keep in tune. And if by some reason you're reading this blog and haven't gotten your copy of Perihelion Baby...shame on you.
So I was chastised about my book. New folks read my poetry and got on me about continuing getting it out there. They explained to me it wasn't so much about profit it was about sharing my creative energies. I agreed. It is a challenge though to balance the manifestation and the marketing/promotion. Yet with their bickering (j/k) I am up and at it again in terms of promoting Perihelion Baby (the right corner dun).
It will be on September 28th at the Cafe 116 in New Haven on Chapel Street from 7pm until. They'll be a DJ there and 1/2 price off of bottles of wine. Plus, you never know, I might have some back up dancers. Keep that date open and get your ass there.
I write poems all of the time. And I have written about a few specific people here and there. Yet I can't really recall of being the inspiration of another's poetry. It's an humbling experience.
Been obsessed with the Baku as of late which is a mythological japanese beast that eats nightmares. Anyway. This collection of hay(na)ku is about the baku.
The art of technological writing deems that one utilize every avenue out there when transcribing. The same way that with my physical journals I utilize different methods in terms of transcribing also carries over when I compose on the net.
Blogger is restrained in that it only has a number of fonts and ink colors/effects available yet when I write stuff for my own usage I use inks of varying hues and shades. I sometimes use the most outrageous fonts and glyphs. I use functions like strikeout, italics, super set, etc. like that are going out of fashion.
One of the reasons that I am obsessed with calligraphy (from ancient to modern) is because physically it makes the word dynamic. It gets it move on. I like my physical words to also have that elements (its the visual artists in me).
My first collection of poetry reflected a different aspect of me, the scholar writer. That's another one of my attributes where I trick out my writings with mad footnotes of esoterica. The upcoming collection will definitely be more in the dynamic sphere.
Yet most of them are in transition because I write grand book novel trilogy stuff. Some people have read some of my novels (yes I've completed more than one). Some people may have read some of my short stories. I like to deal with a whole host of subjects. Ya can't pin me down. For me it just has to be funky.
Here are the top 9 stories that I wrote, am writing or need to be written by C'BS
*A polygyny love story
*A epic fantasy piece whose center character is a child messiah who is accompanied by a baku, a butterfly in a crystal ball, and a qilin
*a man who is taken by his Mexican lover to Mexico where she destroy his passport subtly kidnapping him because he cannot speak Spanish
*a guy who commits suicide by destroying his ego and then slowly rebuilds his identity.
*A man who finds out that he has a son after 5 years and seeks to find him in the foster care system after his mother dies.
*A wuxia-type 52 hand block black kung fu epic
*a man who discovers the Earth is flat
*A group of people who discover secret slavery manuals from the middle passage that describe the 'aliens' that visited the Dogon and esoteric ways to reprogram the nervous system.
*A woman who keeps being thrown into the Indian ghost dance and awaits the return of the buffalo
SYLLABICATION: pan·e·gyr·ic PRONUNCIATION: pn-jrk, -jrk NOUN: 1. A formal eulogistic composition intended as a public compliment. 2. Elaborate praise or laudation; an encomium. ETYMOLOGY: Latin pangyricus, from Greek pangurikos (logos), (speech) at a public assembly, panegyric, from panguris, public assembly : pan-, pan- + aguris, assembly, marketplace; see ger- in Appendix I. OTHER FORMS: pane·gyri·cal —ADJECTIVE pane·gyri·cal·ly —ADVERB
I keep a moleskin notepad or scraps of paper in my pocket at all times. Inspiration is within. You can't wait on it. Change your modality and how you are interfacing with life. I get home and filter through my scribbles and find gold nuggets and silver dust. I accepted long ago that I am the philosopher's stone. Writers write. It gets no more simpler than that. We write because if we didn't we would die. I choose life.
Oh let the sun beat down upon my face With stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been.
To sit with elders of a gentle race This world has seldom seen. They talk of days for which they sit and wait When all will be revealed.
Talk an' song from tongues of lilting grace Whose sounds caress my ear. But not a word I heard could I relate The story was quite clear. Whoa-ohh-oh Whoa-ohhh-oh-oh
First of it's the name of one of the illest albums of all time (Word Power that is). Secondly in the beginning was the word, made flesh, made fresh. From the Griot to the Tlatoani from Gematria to Abjad numerals it's always been known that there is power in the written and spoken word. So poet and poet neonates out there who constantly 'down English as a bastard language' get your weight up. No language is perfect yet man and woman are. Therefore we perfect language. English is beautiful when you rock it right. Get your creativity on the next level. Realize that the bulk of the vocab comes from other languages woolof, nauhuatl, taino, various native nations, etc. Love the way so called foreign folk sprinkle spicy accents on them. Love the way that the body is thrown into it. Love the way we take it all and make it our own thing.
So I have three ways that you can manipulate language through new classes of vocab and words. The dictionary doesn't make words. We put words in the dictionary.
Calligraphy is visual and written art. That's why I have always added it to my bag of tricks. Imagine the skill that it takes to construct a language and then infuse it with beautiful presence. That's what Professor Muhammad Abd-el-Rahman Barker did when he created the language of Tsolyani for this role playing game. I mean he got so ill with it that there are audio tapes on how to speak it. Check it out here. Tsolyani
I've also TAUGHT writing. I've mentioned this before that some people really don't respect the craft of writing. I mean people always try to fall back on that old tired...'well its my feelings and that's that..you can't 'critique' it.' Porkshit. The purpose of writing is to communicate the subject matter and if you ain't got skill and pizzaz then your stuff just comes off weak. It is an artform and there are various different ways to manifest it into a beautiful form.
And from talking to your 'roses are red, violets are blue' crowd most of them know NOTHING about writing. The only form they are familiar with is the haiku (no disrespect to the haiku) and they don't even know anything about modern innovations in terms of writing TECHNIQUE.
Think about it. Music has evolved through technology. Visual art has evolved through technology. You mean to tell me that there aren't new methods of WRITING technology emerging? Of course there are. Let me share with you one of my favorite technologies from one of my favorite to the left writers William S. Burroughs. He actually got it and refined it from Brion Gysin. It's called the cut up technique. Experiment with it. See what you come up with. And if you so desire share some of your experiments with the God.
warm coral sears misty froth catch each thought letting them sleep in nightingale cages
cozy hug lambskin coat over shoulders bashful her glance thaws snow drifts
a lift of ascending sun gazing boundless expanse of Gojira’s carcass punctuate my life with this aleph point of reference
court sand count lives
loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly love=lies life=death self=dark side
I am learning
at Quinnipiac already walked on the bellies of giants found an alien in her stomach hard bowels slit stomach to hear baby speak bel heri belly heavy sadness
impregnated one Haiku formula point formula for infinity
observatory dream of water color mountains in japan fragment fissure frontal lobes cracked chess soapstone reina broken kunoichi
faux fox fur kitsune cream cigarette dripping ash with children and mother learning a new trade while being chased by shinobi
dear let's blend and make chocolate stars while snacking on kola nuts scratched with the words of paradise gleaming clicking cowrie shells showering the locs of my hair
To those who still want to get down with the poetry challenge. It's going to be semi-public. It'll be over at the site of Lord Adeeb's Freedom Path. Come join us or us or just check it out.
Bout to host a series of poetry challenges. This is where I introduce a poetry form to a group of people and we all attempt to manifest a poem using that form. We go through a new form a week and compare our results. If you are interested in getting down with this class of challenges hit me up at righteous.addon@gmail.com
The word made Fresh Aromatic B-boy stance in the begining slang B prismatic, fractured light post up flesh word clammy, tingles under fizzing bulbs flesh wound cement carpets nicks from bricks gangs giving up stygian sting clips zip guns, blades that switch step in shelled shoes with obese laces kangol hats primped and creased innudate late night streets with James Brown beats
For real.. been creating on some other level and alot of what I'm doing won't be revealed in fullness for AT LEAST a year. The God even grabbed the mike and sung (not rapped). Check out Black to Nature for those reviews.
One of the spots that I work at is with relocating refugees into New Haven. I was riding on the back of a pickup truck with a brother my age from Cuba who was darker then me. It was an inspiring day all around so I was composing verses in my head. Started saying the verses outloud yet asked him to record them in Spanish...yes..i know..2 ill..When I revise the piece I'll post it.
I was versing with a friend the other day about some things and she mentioned why don't i write about them. She also noticed that I avoid writing about certain things. I was painful aware of that. I know the power of words. Sometimes there are emotional states that I dont want to amplify. Sometimes I think that subconsciously I am 'drunk' off ocertain emotions and want to 'wallow' in them. With that said though I accept her challenge to attack some of those issues and 'solve' them through verse and meter.
Every week I have a group of people who are accepting a poetry challenge. We decide on an established poetry form and each submit a poem in that form. It keeps the poetry nerves lubricated. If you want to be down hit me at righteous.addon@gmail.com
Take notice to the right bar. I added mad new poetry forms for y'all. My poetry crew and myself have been experimenting with a host of them. Go through and see if there is anything that grabs your eye. In general I tend to stay away from the European forms. There is SO much more out there.
Peace, Balance is important as a writer. I generate a portion of my income from freelance writing and also working as an editor. I find at certain times I get consumed in those realms of writing and not progressing in my creative writing. There is a fine balance that one has to generate to make sure that the are putting aside the space that is necessary for that creative time. I'm still learning about it myself.
So I'm in my submission grind and I noticed something that is just out of wack for me. There are alot of poetry magazines that have an online presence yet don't accept electronic submissions...wtf??!! I know that there is an old guard who wants that hard copy in their hands and you to send a SASE to them to get the reviewed pieces back and all. I don't knock them. Yet once you generate an internet presence you need to go all of the way.
I have a new blog over at Black to Nature. It deals with veganism, eco-consciousness, and other natural stuff from the Black perspective. Check it out.
All of the ancient poets from the Far East to the sub continent of India had to also master the art of presentation. The art of presentation wasn't just about oral recitation of poetry. It also involved having beautiful script. In this day and time hand writing is not at the highest level where the computer has replaced the pen and pad as the primary means of composition. Having fine hand writing and mastering the art of calligraphy isn't on front street.
In America though the true art of calligraphy has been preserved by the grafitti artist. I went through that initiation and have only recently been thinking about how to apply that to my current works of poetry. Also I have been learning basic Arabic script which can used to write in Arabic, urdu, Punjai, Fari, Darsi and other langauges in that region.
As I have mentioned many times one of my favorite forms is the ghazal. I work hard to really express myself through this form and I will be honest and state that I am just a novice in this form. Ironically one of the forms that I actually 'hate' is the sonnet. Maybe because it was the primary form (besides haiku) that was drilled into us in school. 
IF YOU LIKE WHAT I WRITE BUY ME A CUP OF SHOU WU CHIH 
