#BeREAL – MICHAEL JASON ALLEN

I first met Micheal Jason Allen when my daughter and I signed up to be extras on a movie set.  My best friend Yousef Kazemi wrote and was directing a movie called The Stand-in.  Follow its progress here. He was a well-dressed man (because we were in the wedding party) with a bowtie and a…

NIGHT ORCHESTRA

The shadows dance On the brick wall Above me Like dark flames Licking At mortared lines The streets leap to life As car horns play tag With a million voices An orchestra of night Playing a new tune While I make a place To lay my weary head In this alleyway I’ve learned to call…

#BeReal -STEPHANIE MUSARRA

Please help me welcome Stephanie Musarra to #BeReal as she shares with us her experience with homelessness.  It is easy to make assumptions about someone who is homeless because let’s face it… many of us have never been there.  We tend to believe this is a problem we will never be faced with.  But I…

MATCHING NOTES

Maybe the notes Flow through veins Catapult memories From snapshots To movie streams Maybe the notes Harmonize With your breath Reconcile With your thoughts Or maybe they just Keep you alive Until you find Someone who Understands And hears them The same as you

RECOGNIZING RACISM REQUIRES US TO SEE IN COLOR

I’ve heard people say “I am colorblind” when the topic of racism arises. I know what they mean to say… “they” meaning white people like me… mean to say they love all races equally. I may have even said it before myself. But I’ve come to understand why it’s not helpful. Furthermore, why the concept…

OPEN DOORS

The door stands open Just a slivered crack Just perfectly enough To see the universe Swimming lazily by As if on a movie screen Just perfectly enough To feel its icy cold sigh Creep sneakily through On tipsy drunken toes Just perfectly enough To see smiling moons Flirting with the stars And taking it too…

SWALLOWING SECRETS

She swallows A small rainbow And closes her eyes Letting the music Swim in her blood Windows down Static wind blowing As the tempo rises Quickening her pulse Lift off, she flies alone Through cloudy skies Lost inside the blue So afraid of falling Of failing everything Of believing her heart When it’s so often…

SHE’S WORRY

Worry is a creative soul Knocking sense around Like alphabet blocks Building wooden castles Stuffing them with dreams Just to watch them burn Carrying extra demons In case the devil alone Isn’t enough to destroy The human she’s become

BREATHING ASHES

I think I can safely say, at least here in America, that society is triggered.  And it’s having a hard time finding its way back to a place where rational balance lives.  And who can blame us… we have a LOT to be triggered about. Anarchy Steps heavy with Steel toed boots Torches replace Keystrokes…