Carrier Waves

Artist’s Statement

During the Summer Writing Program (SWP) 21’ at Naropa University, my placement in Naropa’s Poetics MFA program came into clarity at the Diane diPrima symposium. During that afternoon, I learned that Diane, a founder of Naropa, was also a medium, and often channeled past poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley and provided notes about these sessions that became other poet’s doctoral research. This awareness not only provided insight into what Naropa’s ethereal archive has been showing me since the Fall of 20/20, but it also provided deeper insight into the new, and remembered, understandings about my poetic process, title, and ultimate Ph.D. research as an Ethereal Writer. A new literary genre and title that has been showing up for me since starting to attend Naropa, and one that came into full view during SWP 21’.

This awareness that Naropa, from it’s conception, through a founding member, has been grounded in accessing ethereal realms for inspiration, information, and contemplation, ended up amplifying my channeling of this Activists Poetics Project piece the next morning in a parking lot in Portland, Oregon in about a half an hour. A piece that was in direct reply to the lack of attention about COVID-19 that I found within the poet’s voices at SWP 21’. Besides the minor commentary about SWP’s restructuring being entirely online instead of in-person because of COVID-19, I counted only 10 instances during the entire month that anybody spoke about what we all have been dealing with for over a year, even though it has changed the course of history.

So, instead of the silence by the poetic community that I found about a pivotal topic that we are all living, I had this activist’s piece channel through me to speak to these pivotal times. Questioning the intersectionality that every human on this planet is facing with COVID-19 by providing a voice to the cultural interventions happening daily concerning masks, vaccinations, mandates and self autonomy.

For my embodiment, there is no greater critical piece of work that needs to be assembled, voiced, activated, and advocated for during these days, and to find such minimal approach to this once in a millennium happening within our own poetic community to me is astounding. Which is what I captured in my piece by the repetitive nature of the cadence, a “calling out” and repeating of the questioning of everything that we thought, and still think, we hold dear since 20/20. No greater influence or influx could be portrayed in our world, as Carrier Waves offers in the voices of the masses, and history will reflect as much in coming years, either by consensus, or eventually through reflective channeling by Ethereal Writers like Diane di Prima and myself.

To carry the waves into the future...
I, my one soul, a soul, single-soul, in the world,
this current world, a world plagued by plagues,
seen barely through masks, some masked, some not, others,
some others, other know the dilapidated normal,
this normal, that normal, norms, norms with thorns.
I, this one, this single-soul, I carry this wave.
They say all it takes is one,
only one to change the world, one
to capture the essence, the presence,
the present’s present, I gift-wrapped it, special, just for you,
wrapped in this contract, art as art, for art’s sake,
Art I on time this time?
My timely timelessness, clocking, mocking, marking his/her/cis-story, the story of summer, a hot-masked, hot-vaxxed, hot-assed summer. The sun’s gazing down, down, down, on me, on us all,
paving the way, pavements, payments, pay this, pay that,

Mmmm, tartar-sauce-baby.
Tar, tarred profiles, pro-filing, pro-life-ing, pro?
pro something? Your pro-truding on me man, true, rude, tread, your treading on my surfaces, surface it, surface the situation, sure-face, face, face-it, surf-it,
Kowabunga! The waves crash
with vaccination or alienation and segregation.
I, this one, this one soul changes,
within, with-in, inner, inside out,
outside-in, right-side, wrong-side
Left-a-side, upside down,
in this world on fire, that plagues plagued
carrying these waves...

Poetry, poetics, politics... aside, ass-side asses side on both aisles, side, re-side, reside, reside in this one soul, in all souls, everyone, ever-one, masked, vaxxed or not,

we are relational, interrelational, inter-relations that intersect inter-sectional, my inter-section is in a traffic jam,
a jelly, jarred, grape-flavored Smuckers jam-a-bam-a-lam-a-ding-dong, bang-a-gong, get it on, and on and on and on and on,
life is a highway, Interstate, are you going my way?
on this Interstate, can you inter-relate, relate to me, relational or rational? rations, ration-this nation-all, any alms for the poor? any alms for the poor? May I have another please, sir?
ration-all standards, who’s standards? my standards?
standards are ir-and-rational, and inter-relational.
We all work, worker’s rights, student’s rights
working, WERK IT biotch, “it” being the truth,
truth of frequencies, energies,
waves upon waves of energy, energies regardless,
regardless of a single-word or single-soul spoken.
Activist, activism, did you march? are you active?
Are you acting? ache-ing? evaluating?
evaluating the current expressions,

express, venti-chai-express-Oh! express this? how? How now black, brown, yellow, white, or rainbow cow? Frequency baby. It’s just like Tesla said...
If I want to know, if you want to know,
the Universe, the times, the yours and mines,
think in terms of frequencies baby,
and let the energetic waves carry us home...

Our founders, fore-founders, flounders, floundering,
falling over their feet for control, social control,
Social media control, speech control, controlling.
Trolling, trolling us, trolling our pre-rolls, our sequels,
our sex, drugs and rock and roll-ing the rules, these, our rulers, our schoolers, the ruling class elite,

our race-to-the-class is a race to the last
because everybody wants to rule the world, don’t they? So masked, or vaxxed, how can we speak up, we ask? Frequency baby, they say think like Elon baby,

buy some dogecoin baby,
because it's golden baby. Pure gold.
Golden-fingered and not golden-ruled, there's gold in dem dar hills! Gold-digging those graves, we gravely try to speak,
free speak, speech, our speech, yours and mine
speaking, peaking, creeping behind, under
neath’ the seams, it seems.
Seams, and stitches, of star-spangled flags, hand-stitched
stitched also by witches, burn baby burn,
we were once burned too, like you, like coal-hot,
our flames flying, fly, sky, higher and higher,
to the sun, sunny, summers.
Where were our waves then?

Let us carry you away, carry you a-ways, come carry a wave with me, ways to extinguish those flames, ride em’
riding those waves like cowgirls, yours and mine, side em’
capturing those flags, those masks, wave em’,

flying higher and higher, in the air, the air out there, aired out, flared out, rode-out, like we just don’t care. Why do you or I care? Share a stare.
stare @ masked, not-masked, are you?

are you vaxxed? are you maxxed? maxed out to the max man - on vax, on masks, on tride or true facts, facts upon facts, ride, hide,

hiding the state, state of relate,
relate, relational, relationship to me,
to you, yours and mine, ours, our flag,
waving, flying, flying high, in the air, sky,
sky-fall, fallen overhead, Watch out!
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! chicken, check-in, check-in little, how does your garden grow? with strife, and might made right,
and society lined up to shoot, shot,
shot in the arm, an arm-y, all in a row.

Shoot gun, shoot fun, bang! bang! bang! Oh what great times we had, had we? On that roller coaster ride, ridden, riding those waves, raves, craves,

“Back to normal” slaves,
F R E E -D O M!
king-dom, we won! you-and-me-dom, dumb,
dumbed-down, dummy, funny, hahaha,
let’s be in-person, let-us be, be free,
free to be, you and me, ours, cars, stars,
stars and stripes, stars and bars, bars upon bars,
masking the charade, parade, parading masks,
parading flags and facts, But Science!
Science is silence.
Silent flags, masks, stay silent now black, brown, yellow, white or rainbow cows... carrying flags, masks, carrying, card-carrying
permits, gun permits, vax permits, permitting,
permitting who?
A permitting petting zoo, that's who. Zoos, zooms,
zoooooming right in on YOU! You?
You who? reads the label,
“That’s right” the caterpillar says, “YOU WHO?”

March, marching, presenting arms, arms
presenting permits, permit my presenting arms,
arms for arms, card-carrying arm-ys,
arms wave, waving, flying cards, masks,
We are NORMAL-See! Normalcy?
What is normal? Normal is boring.
Stop being a bore.
You bore me.
Bore-dom, king-dom, you-and-me-dom,
dumb, dummy, funny, flags, facts, flying,
flying high-higher-highest! In the air, sky, Sky-waving, up here! See! See!
these waves upon waves won’t save,
save you, save me, savior, savory
to this one lone soul,
because one person can change, can save
a world on fire, by raise, not praise
founders, founders that flounder,
raise those flounders, fish flapping in the waves, up-down, up-down, through city and town.
Which way next master? Round and round you clown, clowning, cloning, cloning you and me. But Science!

Science is silence.
Silent masks, vaxxed, silently maxxed,
maxxed out to the max man, you-man, me-man, (woah!) man, womb-man,
just like these solidarity waves we carry - man,
man-y carriers...
How do you like them waves now black, brown, yellow, white or rainbow cow?