Don’t hold a grudge. Mold one instead, into the form of non-fat erotic, neurotic and quixotic poetry and exercise tips by our Staff Writer and Contributor, Award-Winning Author and Playwright, David James Parr. February is gone but Love & Eroticism are still in the air. This March, Creative Pois-On is “On Stage”, exploring the storytelling of Broadway and the theater, but also of all of the passion, the courage, and the fearlessness that it takes to go on the stage of our own life, conquering the demons of any stage fright, to live as the protagonists of the most truthful idea that we have of ourselves. And that’s what “Personal Training: poetry & exercise tips”, does. With this brand-new poetry collection, David James Parr takes us behind the scenes of the creation of the man and the artist he is today, in the middle of the most feral and yet lovingly human ‘stage fright’ of his earlier years in New York City. A coming of age story, from the warm-up to the toughest training that it takes to get rid of the life that we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Enjoy these excerpts from the book – and to read more please CLICK HERE
“The Warm-Up”
“Here it comes
all hips and zipper
Here he comes
all Jack-the-Ripper
Stand upright
Feet shoulder-width apart
Don’t think of his shoulders
Nor their width
Keep arms at sides
Don’t think of his arms
Nor his sides
Reach up towards sky
Arching back
Don’t think of his back
Nor its arch
Here he comes
all torso and swagger
Here he comes
All cloak and dagger
Hold position for 60 seconds
Breathing normally
Don’t think of his breathing
Nor what was once normal”
“Like Woolf and Plath and Hemingway”
“One by one we all run away
like Woolf and Plath
and Hemingway.
Some leave notes,
some leave crumbs,
some dots to connect one by one.
You can read between the lines
but first you have to plant the vines,
and hear the words: “You’re mine.”
You’re told you’re in a quiet mood,
you’re told to change your attitude,
then you hear this word:
unglued.
And then comes that day
when you realize: You may.
Like Woolf and Plath
and Hemingway.
To run away may seem a child’s game,
to such a death you can attach your name,
and look what happens: instant fame.
But are they forgotten with the book?
Downward all eyes would look,
when realizing what they took.
To disappear, a fleeting thought.
Would you like forever just to rot?
Um, well, no
Maybe not.
Still their brains I’d like to pick away.
Can’t we all just have brunch Sunday?
Woolf and Plath
and Hemingway.
Is it that we’ve all been fooled?
Did they give all they should?
Or was it only what they could?
You wake again, and yes, the sky.
Another night has passed on by,
his arm around you: a total lie.
The quiet begs you to stay.
Should you leave? Who can say?
Not Woolf nor Plath
nor Hemingway.
Your eyes thirst for sleep,
you want the silence, you want the deep,
the dark, the stillness
there you’ll keep.
He announces that it’s morning time
If you trust his eyes, you might be fine.
Again, he whispers: “You are mine.”
Like this, you keep it all at bay.
It’s been set on time delay.
Like Woolf and Plath
and Hemingway.”
Writer David James Parr was born on a cul-de-sac in suburban Ohio and grew up on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, where he learned how to spell “cul-de-sac” and to mispronounce “rural”, respectively. He is the author of the novels Violet Peaks and Beauty Marks, as well as the collection How To Survive Overwhelming Loss & Loneliness in 5 Easy Steps: Stories. His title story How To Survive Overwhelming Loss & Loneliness in 5 Easy Steps was chosen by Michael Cunningham (The Hours) as one of the Top 10 Stories in The Tennessee Williams Fiction contest, and is included in the anthology The Best Gay Stories of 2017. David’s story Mata Hari was also selected in 2015 as one of the winners of The Tennessee Williams Fiction contest. David’s plays Slap & Tickle, Albee Damned and Pluto Is Listening have been produced all across the U.S. including Chicago, Dallas, New York, Provincetown and St. Petersburg, and his play Mimi at The 44th Parallel was a Top 10 Finalist in The Austin Film Festival’s 2019 Playwriting Competition. His fiction has appeared in Saints + Sinners, Mosaic and Feminisms. His play Eleanor Rigby Is Waiting was made into a film which premiered at the 2019 Manhattan Film Festival, winning Best Independent Feature.
Please stalk David further at:
Facebook: David James Parr Fiction
Instagram: DavidJamesParr
Twitter: @ParrFiction