City of Legends

This Friday night, at approximately midnight, as the new year turns on the East Coast of the United States and the people closest to me are, for the most part. elsewhere, the "From Out of the City" podcast returns with something remarkable, "The Sacraments" from the forthcoming book Apokalypsis, perfromed with my band.

I just listened to the revised music, now I have to go back into the studio and tweak my vocals, as I need more from my voice.  The integrity of the original take is amazing, so powerful that the Sunday Girl herself refuses to listen to it.  I need more.  I need incandescence.  I need a religious fervor worthy of a Joan of Arc or a Saint Stephen.  I need to dig deep and release it all.

And I will.  The next three days are very important.  They are a time of great turmoil and pain in my life, or survival and passion and the last romantic verb.  And I don’t want all of you who have waited the last couple of years for the return of the podcast to be disappointed.  I don’t want to be disappointed, not by myself (I am disappointed enough in others, you know).

I’ll post the link once the podcast is up and you shall see, you shall hear, did I take it all the way?  Did the afterburners kick in and the last wisps of fire really press things as far as they can go?

Let’s find out what I have left, shall we?

Have word from a few friends overseas (and a few hardy souls who stayed up late enough last night to make it into this morning) of their exploits for Guerrilla Poetry Day.  Bravo and Brava, all around.

I headed out this morning, having made some last minute changes to my itinerary and splitting it into two "waves".

Read "couplet/passion" to the order-taker at the McDonalds in Sterling, Virginia.  I think she was confused.

Did "goblins in my attic" and "My Electric Lady" in front of the American Psychological Association building in Washington, DC.  A street person yelled at me, something about Jesus.

Then, made a ride up to Embassy Row to do "Queen Protea" in front of the South African Embassy.

Later today, more madness.  Madness?  This is Poetry!

In at least a half dozen countries, and perhaps a dozen states, there will be Guerrilla Poetry attacks next Sunday, July 5, 2009.

Just call me Che.

Just wanted to tie up neatly a few rumours and such regarding my current projects (no, not the euphemism referred to my love life…although that’s funny…)

Here’s the topics and the breakdown:

loveaddict:  Still on track for August 16th, 2009.  You;ve seent he cover and read more of the poems that will be in it than you realize, most likely.  I am having fun making this the crispest, strongest book I’ve done since…no, skip that.  Done, period.  I want this book to be "Holy Shit" good.

blister:  The CD progresses in fits and spurts and sparks.  Glad to have my voice back after last year.  I think you will find several major surprises on this disc.

Guerrilla Poetry Day:  I don’t care if one or one million poets take a few minutes that day to engage in a little guerrilla poetry.  I would like to hear stories about it and see photos and video, and will give them a place of honor.  As for me, I still am doing a multi-state series on July 5th, which will include a reading of one or more protest works, including "elegy for Neda" in Washington, DC.

Just thought I would check in…I have been so amazingly busy that I have not been very regular posting of late.

Ook!  No, not that sort of "guerrilla".  The concept comes from a discussion that I and Dan "The Man" McTaggart had a few years ago about performing poetry in spontaneous settings.  I dubbed it "guerrilla poetry", he wrote a poem about it that appears in his book "Midnight Muse in a Convenience Store" as I recall.

A few days ago I resurrected the concept…not with Dan but on Twitter, and got some nibbles from like-minded poets around the world.  So, there it is, the genesis of a start of a concept of a prototype of a dream of a whim of a thought of an idea.

But, it looks like people are looking to me to take the lead (I hate leading, I find it gets in the way of getting to criticize people).  So, here it is…

I, William F. DeVault, poet, author, pretty decent human being and blogger superior, do hereby declare July 5th as "Guerrilla Poetry Day".

The concept is simple.  On July 5th, at some point, in public (in private is a little masturbatory, don’t ya think?) you will stand up and read or recite, aloud, 1 - 3 works.  More than three might be tedious, less than one may confuse people.  You will then just sit down as if nothing just happened, or depart.  If asked, you just tell them to look into Guerrilla Poetry Day on the web, or at our official blog at http://guerrillapoetryday.blogspot.com .

We will evolve more details and structures as time passes.  I hope to be able to report on efforts by others and even set up a place for people to report on July 5th as they complete their "attacks".  The time of day of your attack is not important…but do it during that day in your timezone. 

The lead singer for the band johnnydirtyshoes had asked permission to read my poem Darfur (Jesus Wept) at a concert and rally over the holocaust in the Sudan…I have since become aware that not only did he do the reading, but it was videotaped and now appears on YouTube!

My good friend and sometime collaborator, "Mountain Poet" Daniel S. McTaggart, has accepted my invite to be part of the festivities for the kickoff of the Evangelist Tour, on August 17, 2008. I would encourage (en couer rage) any and all within driving distance of the Barnes & Noble in Morgantown, West Virginia, to attend. You are in for some surprises.

I am soliciting some local musical talent. Whether this means some local bands will perform and/or there will be an Amomancer performance, I leave it to the fates. But in a perfect world, if I had my druthers, you’ll get both. All the hours I have been spending in the studio of late are paying off…I no longer think I sound like a dying, diseased bullfrog with a hernia. And I am learning how to work a microphone! (It is tougher than you might think!)

I am also tracking down other local authors to take part in the readings. Books and CDs galore (all of them, including Dan’s) will be on sale (if you guys sell me out of them on day one of the tour…ah well…), with the Evangelist CD and As such being the official CD and book for the tour.

77 days. Sheesh. Gotta get back on the treadmill.

Bank on these 8 things:

1. All main readings for the Evangelist tour will open with a very special rendition of "I rained poetry". Don’t worry, the lovesick, iron dick, self-righteous prick stuff will be in plentiful supply (that is to say romantic, erotic and metaphysical works). I’m going to follow Sinatra’s law: Open with three sure-fire crowd pleasers, then get into the deep brush. I have nothing in my arsenal that has the track record of that poem with crowds…still trying to select the other two. Besides, it lets me open early with the line "danced like a hurricane at the thought of you, naked in the rain" which is important to this tour. And to me. 8,000 mile kiss.
2. There will be some music. No further revelations, still working on the logistics. What we can do will determine what we will do.
3. Note I am using "we" a lot. The question is: Am I speaking in the majestic or is this going to be a bit more ambitious? You figure it out. I have a few mountains to move. Hide your wives and sisters.
4. If I can get permission, I plan to make black long-sleeved t-shirts featuring the image of one of my book covers (you know which one, dummy) for onstage. I’m patient and there’s time to do the miracle later. Why plural? I’m rough as hell on my clothes nowadays. The feral has returned. God it feels good to scream and roar. The big chair fits.
5. We will be miking the show in many venues. I hate it, but reality is a bitch. But not as nasty of one as I can be. Bring fire extinguishers and tranquilizer darts. Leave the chocolate at the door and run.
6. I will be running a full-on preview show to work out final bugs. It will not be announced in advance, publicly. It will be videotaped for study and breakdown. We may make some of the material available on the web.
7. My knee has recovered, but I think I blew an Achilles tendon running stairs. Strangely allegorical. I should be back at full power by August. If I have to be on a stretcher on the 16th, then so be it.
8. I will, most likely, drop of the face of the earth for periods ranging from a few days to a week or two this summer. I am finding sanctuary with old friends to heal and work on material. If I want anyone to know where I am, they will know.

Joe Cocker is singing "When the Night Comes" at near-nuclear volume, into my poor, abused ears. The light is good. I have developed a combination of music, cathartic and cognitive therapy to keep me afloat for now. So far, the patient is stable and serene.

With minor delusions of truth, love and godhood.

The recent trial readings helped clear my head on some of the material that I was considering for the tour. Good thing, too. I have so much material to pull from (database shows my catalog of poetry grew by more than 400 works between September 1 of last year and today) that choosing material is brutal.

We are examining the possibility of integrating some of the performance pieces, even with music or multimedia. A lot of choices, too many. I keep having to go back to my mantra of a decade or so ago, "Pick a vector and go".

Facing an uncertain future on the personal side, this complicates the planning. I know how much energy it takes, in a null environment, to do a reading…it takes a lot more to do a tour, especially a solo or marquee tour. When things are percolating well on the personal side, I have energy to burn. When things are unstable or uncertain, I have to burn pieces of myself to get the necessary fuel. How ambitious this tour ends up being may have to be decided before the personal issues resolve.

This makes for one hairy-scary scenario of my having to commit to dozens of very intense performances to be consummated when I don’t have the mental or emotional stamina to get out of bed. It’s a challenge. If I make it until October of this year, Cardinal Richelieu would have to consider me remarkable. He would remark on it, I assure you. I may have to go to afterburners and catabolize a major part of myself to keep going. It’s part of life. You decide what’s important and you prepare yourself to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish the truth about yourself.

No one owes me anything in this life, I’m paying my debt to the universe. Need is just a desire you are not prepared to live with unfulfilled. I digress.

I will probably do some run-ups on material in June (most likely Morgantown and a possible Las Vegas) and July (Birmingham, Louisville and Mobile). I do know I am getting stronger with every reading, more sure of the material, more emotionally accessible. Vox implied I’d picked up some tricks "offworld". I won’t argue. I have been places in the last few months I had never been to before. It has all been, if not pleasant, at least beneficial (I said it wouldn’t be easy…)

Books will be available at almost all gigs, and CDs. Broadsides are a pain in the ass. I am still considering bringing an assistant to handle merch and physical setup (and to help me with my meditation). Of course, the last time I did that I ended up marrying the assistant. I want to do at least 4-5 "tent pole" readings…long-form with full production values. For each of those a dozen lesser readings, coffeehouses and bookstores.

So, here goes:

The tour launches on August 16.

Twelve pieces I promise to be in every full-length show:

• Damascus III
• The Unicorns
• I rained poetry
• I love you more than gods can comprehend
• Radiant Tigers
• Aureate
• In the memory of lovers
• Selah
• I will be no pretender
• Evangelist
• You are the shape of the hole in my soul
• Darfur (Jesus Wept)

Any questions? Good. Now shut up and get out of my way. I’m back.

Having done as many readings and recitations of my works as I have, I have it down to…well, not a science, but certainly an inexact, vague sense of direction and decorum for public performances. And I have a few good anecdotes.

My first real public reading was at a coffeehouse behind Drummond Chapel United Methodist Church in Morgantown, WV. I was about 19. The crowd gave the same homogenous applause to every poem and after three or four works I grew irritated, feeling patronized. I lashed out at the crowd for their insincerity (this rocked them a bit) and told them that if they weren’t listening, if they didn’t connect, to just keep quiet. Later on I realized this was going to be part of who I was as a performer.

It is very different recording in the studio than reading in front of a crowd. No retakes, you are aware of every slipped word or mispronunciation. The guy at the table to your left who is busy telling a joke to his drinking buddies pulls your focus a bit. The material, if you haven’t memorized it, pulls your focus and you find yourself looking at it instead of the audience. Step back, adjust. You should have checked your zipper before you came out.

Decide if you are going to work with a microphone or not. I hate microphones. They are one more distraction, one more thing to focus on besides the words and the audience. You need a lot of emotional energy to find your center and release from it, from who you are into who you are trying to connect with.

You have to walk a tightrope between passion and detachment. If you are doing your good stuff, which the audience deserves, and you are connecting to it, you will stumble. Your emotions, your memories, will overwhelm you. You will shake, you will grit your teeth, you will weep. All the madness unfit for walking down the street with will catch up with you and the bile will rise and somewhere in the audience, someone will hear you. Not the words alone, but the person. They will connect. You will see it.

That’s another thing. Connect with the audience. Whether you pick out a person in the front row, or have a friend or lover sit front and center so you can read to and for them, or let your eyes roam the audience to select people at random, you need to be aware of the fact that you are communicating. Refusing to accept the fact that you are out there is naive. Poets aren’t naive. We are insane, but with the sort of madness that the gods approve of.

If you want to read a certain piece a certain way, practice it that way, until you don’t need your notes. If you need to use a cheat sheet, annotate it so you remember where you are supposed to pause, to breathe. I often put such critical pieces on separate broadsides and give them away after the show. At the legendary Fairhope Arts Center reading, I dropped all my prepared material and did a set entirely of memorized pieces. Damn near killed me, but it sparked an emotional conflagration that brought all the other poets up to their "A+" game.

Tonight’s reading in Long Beach is terrifying to me. I will be reading a great deal of material I have never read publicly before, at a time when I am fragile to it, before a group of people who largely have seen me perform before. I will be emotionally, and intellectually, naked. I see it as a trial, a baptism, but also an opportunity, an opportunity to connect with emotions that otherwise strive to overwhelm me. It is a good thing. A mountaintop moment.

My primary advice to those who wish to read their material in public is to know their material, connect to their material and connect to the audience. Start modest. Open microphone events are fine to start. No pressure. But don’t expect the crowd to be in your pocket or to react as you expect, they won’t. I’m good, and I gave up on the notion of control a long time ago. Be yourself. If you are giving a marquee read, where people are there to see you, you will feel the pressure. But remember, if they are there to see you, you need to give them you. They expect and deserve it.

And, don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. We are at our best when untethered, unleashed, released to the internal muse. People ask me what it is like to read in public and I tell them that if you are open to the experience, it is like making love for the first time, to the love of your life, with a room full of strangers and friends standing around, watching, wanting to feel what you are feeling and experience what you are experiencing.

As Neil Diamond once said, "The stage, she is the God-damndest lady you ever saw".

That moment, when you open your eyes and look out over the faces and the first word rises in your fear-constricted throat and you know you are about to drop-trou for strangers and the tears fill your eyes and your fists clench and your stomach fills with screeching hadedas and parts of you are there, parts are still throwing up in the bathroom, parts of you are laying in a bed 11000 miles away and you are walking on an alien landscape with the likes of the abstract gods of ancient days as the adrenaline hits you like an unexpected kiss, the voice of a lover or the hot blade of a knife and you want to scream, laugh, run and throw yourself into the crowd all at once… that moment. That is life, or at least my life.

I’m ready for it. And scared to death.

Having pondered the elements in my previous post about making decisions to have fun, I wish to announce, unilaterally, the following 4 action items:

1. The CD, Evangelist, will launch online this weekend, as a free download of the entirety as well as individual tracks, and will be available for purchase through the Peacat.com store, which will carry all of my books and CDs. The cover will be based on the stained glass picture shown in an earlier posting.
2. The official Evangelist Tour, which will bring together elements of several of my books and CDs, will launch the first week of September, 2008. This gives a window for the previously-planned vacation, during which I may accept one or two read dates, but that will be decided later, dependent on the company I keep.
3. In order to facilitate a later move elsewhere (Gee, I wonder where?), in order to pursue my bliss and my financial intensification, I will be moving back to California no later than December 1, 2008. Sooner, if practical.
4. I will, over time, move my main poetry files completely to williamfdevault.com, so as to make it my "static" poetry site.

This is a start, addressing some immediate and necessary changes. Now I must go outside and dance naked in the rain, moonlight isn’t available.

Love is the good news. And I am the Evangelist.