Dear La Familia,
I Managed to work on an “art” project for a year! One Poem At A Time is one year old. And I made sure to celebrate this accomplishment. I rode on my bike for hours listening to Pink Floyd and Jazz by Coleman Hawkins, spend time in a wonderful used book store, touched and read a copy of 1881 (First copy was 1855)Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman), Bought a 1968 Frank O’hara, sat in community market that I love, drank beer and read Bukowski, O’hara, and few other names — watched the sun move on the building across, watched the people move around, and thought how nice would have been if you were there. Oh people! So this is a bit of happy belated message, but that’s ok. Poems don’t care much about birthdays.
I wanted to thank you for being here, some of you have been here since day one – Natty is the first person to join -, some of you are just joining and I have lost a few of you on the way. I am not sure what will become of this project, I am planning on continuing it for a while longer and watch it evolve. It has been amazing to see changes this projetc has gone through, and how you and I responded to these changes. I have sent One Hundred and Seventy Two Poems so far, written many words to you, shared some of my own poem with you – and shared a crazy amount about my personal life and how I interact with life, emotions, thoughts, and people…My mind is madhouse and you got a front row sitting for some of the shows! Things we do in the name of art. But more than numbers, we have often felt the same human experience in reading these poems. The tear, joy, laugh, sexuality, sorrow, anguish, wake up call. We have felt encouraged, weak, desire, and yearning. The list goes on and on. I have loved every message I have received from you.. and I have been moved many many times the connection has been beyond what I imagined this projetc was going to be. Thank you Laurel for supporting me to start this!
It has been a wild journey for me, the past year has been everything, experienced many flavors of life… and you, my love, my friend, my teacher, you have seen some of it..It has been hard and joyful to bombard your inbox with these many words for this long. It’s hard to not judge, not want to be perfect, not feeling like I should just stop this. Putting yourself out there (here) in a raw and naked form is weird.. and ego is so fragile. But as Bukowski said “If you are going to try go all the way”.
Anyway, thank you so much for being you and being here — I think of you when I write these emails, they are not to the clouds of the internet, but they are for your heart, mind, and soul. Oh how I love thinking of you….You are not alone in this journey, in feeling the feelings…Sending my love and hug to you and your perfect heart “Whoever you are no matter how lonely”. For today’s poem I thought instead of a new poem I’ll send you the first poem I sent on this project and something I wrote.
With Love,
Peyman
Danna Faulds
Awakening Now
Why wait for your awakening?
Do you value your reasons for staying small
more than the light shining through the open door?
Forgive yourself,
Forgive yourself.
Now is the only time you have to be whole.
Now.
Now is the sole moment that exists to live in the light of your true nature.
Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.
Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.
Please, oh please, don’t continue to believe
in your stories of deficiency and failure.
This is the day of your awakening.
Death Of The Love Birds
Peyman
In the morning
a lovebird died in his cage watching me walk down the street.
Have you become darkness?
She Asked
I cannot see myself in the mirror anymore.
I said
We sat quietly,
A cloud exploded in the sky and dropped dead.
We knew.
We knew.
The earth will keep on moving.
The sky will be split open
From its guts rain will fall
And the lovebirds will die.
Until they live again.
One Poem At A Time 