Steve Connell is a spoken word artist and entertainer. Before he took part in this week’s Zócalo/Da Poetry Lounge spoken word performance and conversation, “Does Democracy Need Poets?,” at ASU California Center in downtown Los Angeles, Connell spoke about “idea walks,” how failure teaches success, and a life lived in poetry.
The connection between poems and American politics runs deep. Presidents from John Quincy Adams to Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are published poets. Poets help usher in new presidential eras …
To knock on a door and talk politics with a neighbor. To crack open a book and hear a new voice. To canvass a side street, zig-zagging between houses. To …
Six girls in as many months. Talk of Ouija boards, a ghost hand lifting them in turn to rope. How else could they read the air and think …
‘I’m sorry. I haven’t done this before
and I’m quite nervous,’ he said,
folding himself into the suitcase.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘Take your time.
The whole town’s come to see …
for Elaine Feeney
while we watch our movies sunk in beanbags
the women
are talking without pause of blocked guts
ladling food into handbags
where it settles in …
The connection between poems and American politics runs deep. Presidents from John Quincy Adams to Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are published poets. Poets help usher in new presidential eras …
Last year, approximately 365,000 high school students participated in Poetry Out Loud—memorizing and reciting poems in organized competitions held across all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, …
Arable
The land around coaxes out
almonds, apricots, walnuts.
At 3 a.m., the call to irrigate.
—from “An Alphabet for a Mid-Sized City”
I am not from here, not from the …
Every once in a while, I remember that I was born on the other side of the world, and it makes sense that I love looking up at the stars. …
