Hello from Florida, all you poets.

Austin has spoiled me. The spoken word scene in the Tampa/St.Pete/Clearwater area is sparse, but I found a noteworthy venue at Beaux Arts Society in St.Pete. 80 year old director Thomas Bruce Reese is said to run the possibly-longest continuous coffeehouse in the country, going back 40 years. He's said to have once kicked out Jack Kerouac. The regulars are a mix of musicians, artists, poets. You get sketched as you stand at the mic. You might get heckled, you might get cheered. Tom's a little hard of hearing. He wants you to speak up. As he sits in the audience, he calls out critiques from his seat. The yard of the museum-gallery is lush with tropical flora. If you are in the St. Pete area, check out the Saturday night open mic, 8 to 11:30 pm at 2635 Central Avenue.

APAL Poets Guide:

1. Monday, May 25 -Conjunto Festival at Resistencia Bookstore!!!!!!!!!!

Memorial Day, 4-8 p.m.2210-B South First St. between Live Oak and Oltorf.

phone 416-8885; fax 416-0944

2. Tuesday, May 26 - Ruta Maya Coffee House at 4th and Lavaca. APAL open mic. 6:30 to 8. Sara Sutterfield Winn hosts.

3. Tuesday, May 26 - Electric Lounge Slam, sign up before 9 pm. Genevieve Van Cleve hosts. Last chance to qualify for the Austin City Slam. $50 to winner. 476-FUSE.

4. Wednesday, May 27 - Movements Gallery 211 E. 6th St. BYOB Blast Your Own Breath, 9 - 10:30 p.m. Tammy Gomez hosts. 441-POET or tejana.tongue_at_mail.utexas.edu

5. Thursday, May 28 - Austin City Slam at the Electric Lounge, 302 Bowie. Where the 4 1998 Austin Slam Team members will be decided! 452-FUSE

6. Saturday, May 30 - TIME CHANGE! Saturday Night Live Poetry at Quackenbush's, 2120 Guadalupe. APAL open mic, sign up at 3 pm. Hosted by John Louis Hawk. Featured poet is the lovely Linda Levitt. 479-0597

7. Saturday, May 30 - Ebony Sun Java House 1209 E. 11th St, is the open mike for the youth. The teens in the theater group will do parts from their upcoming play "Idenity Crisis", we will have the rapper Logic and company, so don't forget, we will start about 2:00. For more info, e mail Deb Orr at funmi_at_msn.com

8. Saturday, May 30 - Galería Sin Fronteras (1701Guadalupe, 478-9448) Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review announces the release of Borderlands Issue

11, with a public exhibit and reading from 6-8 p.m. The gallery will feature artwork by Byron Brauchli, Nine Francois, Mark Silva, and Ben Zdan as well as their favorite poems from Borderlands issues, read by Borderlands staff and featured poets. Wine and refreshments will be served.

For more information about this event or Borderlands, please contact Arturo

Palacios, Director of Galería Sin Fronteras at 478-9448, or Susan Marshall,

Borderlands Coordinator at 477-7434.

9. Tuesday, June 2 - Ruta Maya Coffee House, 4th and Lavaca. APAL open mic, sign up at 6:30. Co-hosts Sara Sutterfield Winn and Mark Maslow. 479-0597.

10. Wednesday, June 3 - Movements Gallery 211 E. 6th St. BYOB Blast Your Own Breath, 9 - 10:30 p.m. Tammy Gomez hosts. 441-POET or tejana.tongue_at_mail.utexas.edu

11. Friday, June 5 - Mojo's Daily Grind at 2714 Guadalupe. APAL open mic hosted by Marie Fleischmann, sign up at 8 pm.

12. Saturday, June 6 - Quackenbush's at 2120 Guadalupe. Saturday Night Live Poetry, APAL open mic. Hosted by John Hawk. Sign up at 3 pm

Featured Poetry:

1. From Walker, co-founder of APAL, now in Wichita Falls:

"Hi Stazja, haven't had much contact with the Austin poets in a while, so here's a

poem for your perusal and possible inclusion in your newsletter.--not a particularly happy one, but hey they can't ALL be.

Huge hairy greetings from Walker, Shana and baby-Kenzie to all Austin folks! We

miss you!"

The rain burned my eyes out this morning

You know, walking in dull mist

Has a way of twisting your arm behind your back

Taking you down the straight road

Never looking back

Or even seeing diverging paths

The rain burned my eyes out

And no more tears

No more sweet cries in fresh daylight

I'll never leave this road

Never turn down a tenuous trail

A fresh mystery dissolves like vaporous dreams

Leaving the rut of existence

In a place where thousands of souls

Walk arm in arm

There are no pot-holes

I never fear tripping again

The rain burned my eyes out

Empty sockets for new orbs

An image superimposed

Of unchanging static

Tears my dignity to shreds

A fierce wind cuts through the dark

And only blind creatures sprouting sails

Are carried away.

2. Colleen Wilhite is a new subscriber, in Clearwater. Colleen runs a fine monthly poetry venue and is putting together a poetry fest in the Tampa Bay area to benefit the World Literacy Crusade.

Change Your Mind

Change from blame and shame

From all the ill-fitting faults & cracks

Used to hide truth

Change from staring down at some distant tomb

Wishing all was dead,

If you wish at all.

Change from sodden wailing, squealing

Like Cassandras pigs at the inequities of fate

Though fate be too much maligned

Change from shaking, icy, eye wide darting

Up and down, hither and yon

From hidden horrors sure to happen.

Change from fear so certain it must be disguised

With friendship and concern

A smiling mask tearing away in darkness at the enemy

Change from seething, scalding tantrums

Aimed at friend more so than foe

Unknowing it is yourself you destroy

Change from nipping, biting charges

At imaginary, or not so, slights

Irritating in your irritation.

Change your view outward

Maybe see something you haven’t seen before

Perhaps it’s safe to laugh, a little.

Change to reaching outward

More expansively seeing just what is there

For a change.

Change to creating, to action

To motion, dancing with legs, with music,

With words, with friends

Change your tune. Change your life. Change your mind.

3. From another new subscriber, Marian Gibb:

DNA

Creatures of light at our innermost roots

Carry the light-bearer, phosphorus' fire,

Born from the drive sending out the green shoots

On the white crest of the greatest desire.

Helical weaving of chemical strings

Too tiny to see, too strong to ignore

Maps out the moth, or a heron, or kings,

Writes life with light in each bit of the lore.

Patterns repeat in their colors and forms

Down generations of species and race,

Tested to see who best weathers the storms

Besetting the joining of life, time, and space.

Thus every being who carries the spark

Plays in the vast game of Light against Dark.

(written 7-12-92)

Marian

Chap Books nothing submitted this week. anyone? anyone?

Brags **** New newsletter section, folks! Send me your good news, I'll share it with the world!

1. ERNIE CLINE proved he still has what it takes to make $50 in 3 minutes. Ernie won last week's slam at Electric Lounge with his Bert and Ernie poem. (Between Ernie and Jeff Knight, Sesame Street is getting slammed to pieces, ha ha)

2. FRANK POOL recently had three poems accepted for publication, two in a university press.

3. MARK MASLOW had his first (and highly successful) feature last Tuesday at Ruta Maya. One pleased listener donated $20 to the tip jar.

4. STAZJA MCFADYEN (c'est moi) banked $89 for the 4 first place prizes in the Austin Poetry Society Annual Awards.

5. BYRON KOCEN also won a couple first prizes.

6. PRESTON TYREE placed #1 in two of the APS awards.

7. ROBERTO MORENA releases a new CD at his show on June 13th at BABES on 6TH Street, in Austin. (Restaurant side) 9:30 p.m. Full Band and all

8. CIRCE's newest work, a multimedia CD-ROM entitled Seduction, will be available from Dead End Street Publications on July 4, 1998.

9. ROB SICILIANO wrote "I'm putting on these two CLEBO RAINEY gigs in Toronto on May 18th & 20th"

10. New subscriber CHRISTOPHER QUINN reviewed LARRY JAFFE in the ARTS : SHOWBIZ section of his Offworlds.com website: "Jaffe is an in-your-face, rock-you-to-your-soul poet. He wields words like a Samurai brandishes a sword. If he pulls out his pen he is going to draw blood before sheathing it again. He means what he says, and he says it very well indeed. And if you have the courage, I hear each of his live readings of his work is a deliciously unique and intense experience." LARRY performs at the Comedy Store in Hollywood on Monday, June 1.

Announcements

1. APAL free poetry workshop is going strong every Sunday, 2 pm at Quackenbush's. Conducted by John Hawk. Bring 10 copies of poem.

2. Diane Fleming is yet another Austin poet going to NAP JAM 2 in Las Vegas in September!

3. So far, I have one offer to put up some visiting poets during the Slam Nationals in August, thanks Rev Wyrdsli.

4. Happy Birthday, Adriana Travers!

5.. Welcome, new subscribers. Anyone wanting off the mailing list, all ya gotta do is e mail me.

Wrapping up now, thanks all who contributed, keeping the word alive and spoken.

And if you are limin' (a slang term from Barbados = hanging, being lazy) on Memorial Day, invite the Muse over for barbeque.

Much love,

Stazja

Subj: Re: Austin Poets at Large #29

Date: 98-05-25 10:20:15 EDT

From: mgreene_at_sage.net (Morrie Greene)

To: Stazja_at_aol.com (Stazja)

>spoken word scene in the Tampa/St.Pete/Clearwater

>area is sparse, but I found a noteworthy venue at Beaux Arts Society in

>St.Pete.

you've got to be kidding me...

stuart's family is from that very place

ALL vacations end up there... twice a year

I'll remember about Beaux Arts... hah!

like he'd let me go read or listen while we're on vacation

oh, to answer your question, I converted to be jewish, he was bron that way

however, at this point in my life, I'm not a confirmed anything

but am still figuring it out

say, I had someone call, leave a message asking who to call in austin

to find out about venues

I don't have too many austin numbers

who would you suggest?

and :))) would you happen to know their number??

your friend,

morrie

    -----------------------------------------------------------

"we are shadows of God, Poets, meaning makers of the universe

we are the we, with mystic touch and eyes to see

what others cannot, do not, and will not

we dance in the desert, making sense of myths, prayers, and

onion-skinned-surreal stairs

we are transformers of souls, parting veils of plainness, 

we touch to make whole... we are the we...  

Come...  Unto Me"                           

(-mwgreene)

Subj: Re: Austin Poets at Large #29

Date: 98-05-25 13:28:51 EDT

From: skoshi_98_at_yahoo.com (Carol Cullar)

To: Stazja_at_aol.com (Stazja)

Stazja, the district attorney there in St. Pete is a friend of mine

who would be delighted if you called him up and said a poet/friend of

yours said "Hi!" His name is Gerald Colen. He'll be quite confused and

surprized. You might catch him at his office. He has written a few

poems and may not know about the reading site you mentioned. He's a

very bright man, but somewhat lonely.

Carol Cullar

Eagle Pass

Subj: Re: Austin Poets at Large #29

Date: 98-05-25 12:47:06 EDT

From: lorenzo_at_IntNet.net (Loren S. Damewood)

To: Stazja_at_aol.com (Stazja)

Stazja,

Thanks for the newsletter, I enjoyed it. I'll try to dig up a copy of my

(one) original poem for you. I looked all over on this system, but

apparently it is no longer present in bits and bytes. I do have a printed

out copy of it, though, so I'll transcribe it once I locate that.

Organized? ME?

Lorenzo

http://www.golden-knot.com/



Subj: Re: Austin Poets at Large #29

Date: 98-05-25 15:00:14 EDT

From: WHATSIT2

To: Stazja

THANKS SWEETIE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOR