On Tuesday, September 9th, 2014, I am honored to be featuring at a new monthly open mic called Empact, hosted by Felicia Cade. It will be held in the lobby of Epicenter Church at 4801 Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach, California 90805. It starts at 7 pm with an open mic for poetry, music, dance, and other artistic expression. Bring your creative self and prepare to be Empacted! RSVP on Facebook
Tag: Spoken Word
Poetrypalooza August 10th, 2014
Some of my favorite people and I are joining in Southern California’s 4th Annual Poetrypalooza! On Sunday, August 10th, from 2:30-5:30 at DiPiazza’s on 5205 E. Pacific Coast Highway, there will be music, poetry, art, dancing, and an open mic!
Find more information and RSVP on Facebook!
5:38 on Soundcloud
Another track from Anchors, “5:38”, is available to listen to on Soundcloud. This poem was also recently published in Carnival Lit Mag, Magic issue and will be included in All the Tiny Anchors, which will be available soon!
June 24th @ Coffee Cartel
Nancy Lynée Woo and I will be reading poetry for you in Redondo Beach at the Coffee Cartel on Tuesday, June 24th at 8:00 pm. The Redondo Beach Poets have a weekly reading every Tuesday with an open reading sign up starting at 7:50. We would love you to join us! RSVP on Facebook
Coffee Cartel: 1820 South Catalina Avenue, Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Skin As Thick As Walruses Recording
“Skin As Thick As Walruses”, along with “White Sandals”, is included in the anthology Disorder: Mental Illness and Its Affects published by Red Dashboard now available. I feel extremely honored to be a part of this anthology since this issue is very near to my heart.
Before you buy your very own copy, you can listen to a recording done with BobKat. Bobby Cuff selected music they had prerecorded and without any planning or previewing, we recorded this track in one take. The timing was magical. I hope you will enjoy.
July 9th @ The Ugly Mug!
Doing a feature at The Ugly Mug in the city of Orange on July 9, 2014! Hosted by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry, the reading starts at 8:00 P.M., has a great open reading, and very comfortable atmosphere for a small $3 cover.
261 N. Glassell Ave., Orange, CA 92866May 10th, 2014
Rock and Robin NaPoMo Poetry Party
April is National Poetry Month! Come out and celebrate poetry with an exciting night with dynamo readers Daniel McGinn, G. Murray Thomas, Raundi Kai Moore-Kondo, JL Martindale, Sarah Thursday, Nancy Lynée Woo, Fernando Gallegos, Larry Raymond Duncan, and Alan Passman. With special musical guests, a poetry writing workshop and an open mic! All this great stuff and it’s FREE!
Summer Drunk
Another track from my recording, Anchors, available on Soundcloud.
Summer Drunk
It’s the heat, it reeks of his smell
reminds me of the place under his collar
and edges of his long sleeves.
How the air was too thick for sleeping
how I was constantly intoxicated
with the hum of his voice.
I lay in the green sun reading
his books, breathing his fingerprints
heart beats between text replies
The blue sky kissed my shoulders
and thighs, grass ceilings always
bracing my body from ascension.
How I existed in the space
before you with me and without was
sleepwalking and summer drunk.
The heat hung like a red cloud
on my back and on my heels.
Here, the earth comes back
to this place around the sun
to break my sobriety
again and again.
Originally published in Lummox II: Place Anthology
How to Lose 25 Pounds Without Dieting, Pills, or Exercise
I am incredibly excited to share this recording from, Anchors, a 12 track spoken word album that I will have available very soon. Lovingly produced in collaboration with Blacksheep Music (Karlee A. Tittle Cuff on violin, Bobby Cuff production).
(Click link to listen) How to Lose 25 Pounds Without Dieting, Pills, or Exercise
1. Open a Christmas card from a long lost love who found you on the internet, not on Facebook, especially if that long lost love broke your heart when you were young enough to idealize the heartache and especially if that card was also an apology.
2. Obsess about the million of possible reasons he sent that card the old fashioned way with stamp and pen after fourteen years of not-speaking-to-you-again, especially if there is no phone number or email included, just a return address.
3. Let him back into your well-worn heart without real answers, let him apologize again and again, but let him be unexplained and so much kinder and so much softer in the eyes.
4. Lose a lot of sleep buzzing constant with the weight you attach to his every syllable, every familiar gesture laced to his new grown-man charm, especially lose sleep waiting weeks in between the excuses you both invent to relive your lost connection.
5. Dive in very deep the moment he kisses you, do not look up, do not hold on to anything from the surface, keep pushing forward and down, let the pressure crush you, let him have every last ounce of oxygen.
6. Remain only in the present, minute to minute, live like you must love him for the lifetime you’ve lost, and never try to add up those years in between or account for his lack of details, live for the now reality of your skin and sweat and breath.
7. Surrender all your doubts and lay them unquestioning at his feet, do not see it coming, do not brace yourself, do not know you should have known, do not have any assurance but his hands through your hair, and do not ever regret it.
Text version published in the Heartbreak Anthology, edited by Karineh Mahdessian






