Traci Gourdine and Lawrence Dinkins (NSAA)
Monday, February 16 at 7:30pm – 9:30pm
SPC at 1719 25th Street
Cynthia Linville hosts. Free.
Traci Gourdine’s poetry and stories have been published in numerous literary magazines, and she has been anthologized in Sudden Fiction Continued (Norton Publishing) and Burning the Little Candle (Ad Lumen Press). Traci and Quincy Troupe were paired in a year-long exchange of letters for the anthology Letters to Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics, and Community (Saturnalia Books). She is co- editor of Night is Gone, Day is Still Coming (Candlewick Press), an anthology of writing by young Native writers, as well as We Beg to Differ, poems by Sacramento poets against the Iraq war. Her poems are in the collections Shrugged Burdens, Moving Out of Rhythm, Graceful Exits, and Adjacent Planes. A new collection of her poems, Ringing in the Wild, will be out in the spring. For ten years she facilitated writing workshops within several California state prisons in the Arts in Corrections program for the William James Association. She is a professor of English at American River College in Sacramento
Baby Got On
By Traci Gourdine
One of her legs is resting across a chair
girl teenager with the weeds setting in
she could lick your fingers
and tell you favorite stories
Her anonymity is easy
her straw words blow far across this city
mostly air ill-shaped with light
In Chicago the night bears wages
and she hunkers down
to fold as compact as nylons
careful to avoid getting torn
She wears other people’s hair
walks down stairs trailing dark grins
sheet of ice
pillow of razors
her blue-black eyeliner is streaming down
She’s learned this much
some rules are simpler than others:
chew words of violence then swallow hard
laugh when you fall off the curb
it can be a long train ride home don’t sleep
man is the name giver
listen
Lawrence Dinkins, Jr. —penname NSAA [pronounced en-sah-ah]— is a fire and brimstone urban poet seasoned with sex, reflection, tongue-in-cheek wit, and a cautious hope in the human race. This self-described pessimistic-optimist believes poetry has purpose— beyond beautifying bookshelves. He experiments with combining poetry with music, recordings, video, and visual art. He has several chapbooks and CDs, and his collection of art, photography, and poetry Open Mic Sketchbook, is available from little m press. Lawrence frequently attends, performs at, and hosts poetry and new music events in Sacramento and elsewhere in northern California.
I LAY IT DOWN
By Lawrence Dinkins, Jr.
I lay the day to rest
I lay it down
Like an elderly man on his deathbed
coming to unexpected end
I lay the day to rest
I lay it down
Cradled in my arms, slowly, gingerly
Crouching over the bed of day’s end
I lay it painfully down
Thoughts of to-do’s, undone
Wishes, ungranted
Needs, unmet
And wants, unfulfilled
I lay it down
