Dan Seaman, "Side of the Road"

"Side of the Road" is some daydreaming about recently-old relationships and moving along on a long uninterrupted wide-open-country motorcycle trip to Redstone, Colo. danseamanfmx/localafprods music: www.audionautix.com

Poets at GumptionFest VII

Friday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m., @ Szechuan Martini Bar:

Christopher Fox Graham, host of the Sedona Poetry Slam and member of the 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2012 Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Teams

Christopher Fox Graham, photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham is a poet living in Sedona, Arizona.
Beginning his performance poetry career in 2000, Graham has been a member of six Flagstaff National Poetry Slam teams, representing Flagstaff in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2012. Graham won the Flagstaff Poetry Grand Slam championship in 2004 and 2012.
Graham was part of the Save the Male Tour, a four-man international spoken word tour in 2002 that performed in 26 states over three months.
In 2005 and 2006, Graham’s teams won the Slab City Slam at Arcosanti, the state’s poetry slam team championships.
Since 2006, Graham has been the poetry coordinator of GumptionFest, a free, grassroots arts festival in Sedona.
In 2008, he founded the Sedona Poetry Slam and became a slammaster in 2012, sponsoring the inaugural Sedona National Poetry Slam Team. Graham was a featured performer at the invitation-only 2012 Desert Rocks Music Festival.
Graham has published five books of poetry and a spoken word CD, and been published in six anthologies of spoken word and in two DVDs of Grand Slam Championships. He has been featured in two films on the
Sedona art scene.
Graham has performed poetry for MTV, The Travel Channel and at venues in nearly 40 states, Canada, Ireland and Great Britain.
His blog, FoxThePoet.Blogspot.com, features his work and those of other national poets and Sedona artists, recording more than 2,000 hits a week.

Friday, Sept. 14, 10 p.m., @ Olde Sedona Bar & Grill:

Evan Dissinger, a member of the 2012 Sedona National Poetry Slam Team.

Evan Dissinger, photo by Kelly Watts

Acrylic tattooed skateboards, the sound of concrete waves crashing, rock ’n’ roll to pass the time, marijuana cigarettes, and candle light dinners eaten alone.
Evan Dissinger like to paint and laugh in kinetic conversations.
He enjoys watching Atlas shoulder tomorrows promises, no sun rise should be taken for granted.
Dissinger and his cat, Azula, both smile at serendipitous psychedelic situations. He doesn’t believe in cops, bosses or politicians, some call that anarchism, He calls it having a fucking heart that beats. He believes in being honest, especially if it means being wrong, self-reliance is a product of self-responsibility.
Joe Strummer said his motivation to wake every morning was the ability to think. That gift is the one certainty we have in this life, the simple knowledge that we are here, right now, everything else should be subject to question.
Dissinger is infatuated with the human experience. There is no wrong way to live life as long as you can recognize fleeting moments of true lucid beauty.
Don’t check out early, there are great stories and warm coffee here, there is no way the next life will be as vivid visceral.
Live as if this were a dream and nothing can stop you from knowing who you are.

Saturday, Sept. 15, 5 p.m., @ Szechuan Martini Bar:

4th annual Haiku Death Match

The GumptionFest VII Haiku Death Match is open to all attendees of GumptionFest VII.

What is haiku?

Haiku (俳句) is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of 17 syllables in three metrical phrases of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.
Japanese haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku.

What is slam haiku?

lam haiku used in a Haiku Death Match is far simpler: Use of three or fewer lines of 17 syllables. Slam haiku can be anything from a single 17-syllable line or simply 17 words.

What are the Haiku Death Match rules?

• Titles: Haikusters can read their haiku titles before they read the haiku. (This gives the haikusters technically more syllables to put the haiku in context, but the haiku itself must still be only 17 syllables. While this is not “pure” Haiku Death Match rules, it’s much more fun for the audience.
• Originality: Poets must be the sole authors of the haiku they use in competition. Plagiarized haiku are grounds for disqualification. We all love Matsuo Bashō, but he’s 300 years too dead to compete.
• On-page or memorized?: Poets can read from the page, book, journal, notepad, etc.
• Preparation: Poets can have haiku written beforehand or write them in their head while at the mic. As long as the haiku are 17 syllables, we don’t care how, when or from where the haiku originates.
• Rounds: Will be determined by the number of haikusters who sign up to compete.
• Quantity of haiku needed: Depends on the number of rounds. 30 haiku will likely be enough for poets who push rounds to the last haiku needed and go all the rounds, but 50 to 100 gives haikusters enough material to be flexible in competition. Most veteran haikusters have several hundred to compete with.
• Censorship: Adult themes and language are acceptable. There may be children present so you may have to deal with their parents afterward, but that’s your call.
• Register early: E-mail Christopher Fox Graham at foxthepoet@yahoo.com.

Saturday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m., @ Szechuan Martini Bar:

The Klute, a member of the 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 Mesa National Poetry Slam Teams, the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team, a two-time National Poetry Slam semi-finalist, and winner of the 2010 GumptionFest Haiku Death Match

The Klute, photo by Jessica Mason-Paull

The Klute, aka Bernard Schober, competed at the National Poetry Slam six times, for the Mesa Slam Team in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, and the Phoenix Slam Slam Team in 2008 and 2009, 2010 and 2012. He has led two of those teams to the NPS semi-final stage, ranking him among the best of the best nationwide. He was also the Mesa Grand Slam champion in 2005 and 2010.
Standing more than 6 feet tall and always bedecked in
a black trench coat, the Klute is hard to miss. When
poetry escapes his lips at full blast, he’s hard not to hear.
In an era when most artists and poets shy away from confronting politics, the Klute stands apart.
He has earned a reputation for in-your-face political commentary and over-the-top humor targeting Neo-Conservative politicians, crass laissez-faire commercialism and Goth subculture.
Originally from south Florida, The Klute writes almost exclusively in free verse, making his poetry conversational and relevant to even those who see poetry as something to avoid.
Standing more than 6 feet tall and always bedecked in a black trench coat, the Klute is hard to miss. When poetry escapes his lips at full blast, he’s hard not to hear.
The Klute has released three poetry chapbooks, “Escape Velocity,” “Look at What America Has Done to Me” and “My American Journey,” which prompted a cease and desist order from the attorneys of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“Despite the heat, [The Klute] wears a black trench coat almost everywhere he goes and if the setting permits, he’ll blast through enough slanderous commentary to make Andrew Dice Clay blush,” according to Phoenix 944 Magazine. “Today, his addiction for getting in front of the microphone and spitting out everything from a Dick Cheney haiku to a long-winded prose on race car driving to the late Hunter S. Thompson is as strong as his love for vodka and absinthe. If anyone’s seen ‘The Klute’ in action, they’d know it. If they haven’t, they must.”

Saturday, Sept. 15, 9:30 p.m. @ Oak Creek Brewing Co.:

Ryan Brown, a member of the the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Teams, and 2008 National Poetry Slam semi-finalist

Ryan Brown, photo by Tara Graeber

Born twenty-three years ago in Phoenix, Arizona, Ryan Brown has been writing and performing poetry in Northern Arizona for nearly five years.
After discovering Flagstaff’s FlagSlam in 2007, Brown began writing poetry with a small group of like-minded young people, eventually taking over as the slam’s Slammaster in the fall of 2008. That year, the Flagstaff poetry scene saw features such as Gypsee Yo and Andrea Gibson hit Flagstaff stages for the first time, reinvigorating a slam community that pulled poets from Northern Arizona University, Sedona, and Phoenix to create one of the largest consistent poetry slams in Arizona.
After slamming at his first National Poetry Slam in 2008, Brown began to focus his writing more on the ideals of community, social networking, and the ever-cliché but always boundless topics of love, intimate relationships, and human connection.
Teaming up with Frank O’Brien on Flagstaff nationals teams in 2008, 2009, and 2010, Brown worked on herb and coffee farms in Hawaii in late 2010, eventually coming back to NAU to get an English degree with the class of 2012. The
FlagSlam took place at Sundara Boutique for the 2011-12 season, thriving in an all-ages scene that draws upwards of 75 people on a schoolnight, poets flocking from miles away.
Currently the Flagstaff Slammaster, Brown’s passion for poetry and poetic expression can be rivaled by his love of baseball, skateboarding, and patio conversations with a few good friends, or a couple of brothers.
He cites John Cartier, Frank O’Brien, Jessica Guadarrama, Aaron Johnson, and Josh Wiss as his biggest influences, both in poetry and in life, and would like to give a shout-out to his pug-terrier Pip, whom he passed on to another family before taking off to Hawaii.
Peace, homie.

Sunday, Sept. 16 5:45 p.m. @ Szechuan Martini Bar:

Tara Pollock, a member of the 2012 Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Tara Pollack, photo by Tara Graeber

Tara Pollock has been writing poetry since she was a young girl, and performing poetry on and off throughout her adult life.
She is excited to have the opportunity to be on Flagstaff’s 2012 National Poetry Slam Team. She seeks to inspire, liberate, and uplift through her words.
The creative force of poetry has been a catalyst for her personal evolution, as well as providing a medium through which she has come to know herself more deeply, and to share herself with her community. She is currently finishing her Biology degree at Northern Arizona University with plans to attend Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in the fall of 2013.
When she is not knee deep in books, pens, and paper, she can be found teaching yoga, hiking, dancing or cooking.

Sunday, Sept. 16, 9:30 p.m. Olde Sedona Bar & Grill:

Dan Seaman, longtime Prescott are poet and founder and host of the Slab City Slam, Arizona’s state poetry team championship from 2001-2007

Dan Seaman is a performance poet and fire dancer

Dan Seaman is a second-generation Arizonan who was encouraged to continue writing poetry … despite the obvious physical contradictions of his overtly masculine appearance and furrowed brow.
His work has been described as “realistic romanticism”… and his voice, as “an undertow of emotion”.
Dan was also a co-founder of the 2001-2007 Arizona State Championships held at Arcosanti, diligently planning, hosting, managing and overall making sure the best weekend of poetry is the state lived up to it’s pedigree …

"This Country: When You Tire of Travels, Come Home" audio recording

This Country: When You Tire of Travels, Come Home by FoxThePoet

This Country:

When You Tire of Travels, Come Home

when your feet grow tired of globetrotting
and all the monuments to forgotten kings
have blurred into obscurity


when your shoulders ache
from carrying your whole world tortoise-style
from one rest-stop lover to another


when you’ve heard all the foreign tongues
repeat the same stories for the last time
and you’ve grown tired of translating


when your shoes have fallen apart
unable to martyr their soles
for your hobo evangelism …

come home
this country still longs for your sunrise
its geography is easy to map:

to the East lie my arms
curling inward to hold back time
their digits stretch northward
ten fingertips on separate crusades to find you
they unite only to pen poems about
the futility of kidnapping you across the borders
back into the caverns of my chest
overwhelming vacant since you stole its last inhabitant
which you unraveled the way Hansel and Gretel taught
to fashion a string to trace your route back here
these cave walls still shudder with your laughter
turning ribs into organ pipes
I play in dreams to orchestrate your reconquest
fool my yearning that you are only a hitchhiker’s thumb
and an hour from my doorstep —
a lie, but at least I can sleep through the night
without filling the hollow in my bed with my wailing
instead, try to keep it warm for you

to the South
are mountains of memories
impossible to scale without oxygen and a Nepalese Sherpa
they stretch to the clouds and in winter, blot out the sun
I chip at them with a pick axe of ink
take the pieces home to an orange juicer
attempt to squeeze out story after story
told in Homeric fashion
the gods of Olympus jealously dwarfed in the shadows
find their epics insufficient
Odysseus, Gilgamesh and Arjuna
camp in the foothills unable to scale you
talk about the good old days
when there wasn’t so much poetry in which to live
on the cliff sides I hunt for the road trips
the afternoon siestas
the midnight embraces
the slow Sunday mornings
for new word wombs
new poems to trap, take home, raise to maturity
and release back into the wild
for the world to see how you changed this boy
I will climb them as long as a pulse thumps me into movement

to the North is an ocean of your words
tide pools of sentences
waves of your stories
tsunamis of our arguments
to wash over any fool who braves to sail them
on maps print the words, “Here Be Dragons”
and I’m never sure which will swamp my boat
or carry me home
white-tip arrogance soothed by Sargasso Sea gentle honesty
choppy squalls when I lost myself to ego
pleas for forgiveness offered on Yom Kippur
all the poems over the phone blowing lost sailors to safe ports
someday when I have outlived you
I foresee abandoning shoes,
gripping frail hands on armrests,
rising from wheelchair
striping down to unflattering Speedo
and walking into these waves to drown
up to my ears in the waters of your laughter
filling my lungs with drops of your whispers

in the center is a house of paper
naked 8½ by 11s begging to be bathed in black ink
the first 30 stories are made of rough drafts
in preparation to meet you
the upper stories will be built to celebrate you
and when I reach my 90s
the tower will collapse with the weight
spreading the pages across this county
Billy Collins keeps an apartment across the hall from Derrick Brown
they meet in the lounge with Shane Koyczan and Ed Mabrey
have coffee on Sundays with R.C. Weslowski and Mike McGee,
each reading a new ode to you
they found that week on the cabinet
under the sink or behind the door
banisters Bill Campana will jot haiku from
window frames slam poems Klute will read aloud after bagels
dueling in rhyme with Shappy Seasholtz
sonnets on fireplaces Dan Seaman and Mikel Weisser will read in tandem
on weekends, CR Avery, Scott Dunbar and Lights
will play the ballroom made of canvasses
echoing through the vents all week long
on the upper floors
poets yet unborn ready to join to the conversation
there is room here
for whomever you choose to fill the house with
forgive the flesh of this man
for being made of flawed skin unedited
he knew not what he did
you always liked me better on paper anyway


to the West is an open country
as far as the eye can see
lie no walls nor borders
no future beyond what we make of it,
without a horizon to fall over
sunsets are unimaginable,
the land yearns for your footfalls
and I will chase you across it
until these feet break beneath me
never ask if it was all for naught
until you have seen the country you built here
the boy you reshaped who lives out in the open
uncertain of where to go now
penning poems from dawn to dusk
dreaming of your open arms
reading them to anyone who’ll listen


when you tire of travels
when you need shelter to rest weary limbs
when you want to see a boy left better
than the one you first met
this country is wherever you choose to meet me
ready to welcome you home


Written Sept. 28, 2010, a year to the day after meeting Azami.

This Country

when your feet grow tired of globetrotting
and all the monuments to forgotten kings
have blurred into obscurity


when your shoulders ache
from carrying your whole world tortoise-style
from one rest-stop lover to another


when you’ve heard all the foreign tongues
repeat the same stories for the last time
and you’ve grown tired of translating


when your shoes have fallen apart
unable to martyr their soles
for your hobo evangelism …


come home
this country still longs for your sunrise
its geography is easy to map:


to the East lie my arms
curling inward to hold back time
their digits stretch northward
ten fingertips on separate crusades to find you
they unite only to pen poems about
the futility of kidnapping you across the borders
back into the caverns of my chest
overwhelming vacant since you stole its last inhabitant
which you unraveled the way Hansel and Gretel taught
to fashion a string to trace your route back here
these cave walls still shudder with your laughter
turning ribs into organ pipes
I play in dreams to orchestrate your reconquest
fool my yearning that you are only a hitchhiker’s thumb
and an hour from my doorstep —
a lie, but at least I can sleep through the night
without filling the hollow in my bed with my wailing
instead, try to keep it warm for you


to the South
are mountains of memories
impossible to scale without oxygen and a Nepalese Sherpa
they stretch to the clouds and in winter, blot out the sun
I chip at them with a pick axe of ink
take the pieces home to an orange juicer
attempt to squeeze out story after story
told in Homeric fashion
the gods of Olympus jealously dwarfed in the shadows
find their epics insufficient
Odysseus, Gilgamesh and Arjuna
camp in the foothills unable to scale you
talk about the good old days
when there wasn’t so much poetry in which to live
on the cliff sides I hunt for the road trips
the afternoon siestas
the midnight embraces
the slow Sunday mornings
for new word wombs
new poems to trap, take home, raise to maturity
and release back into the wild
for the world to see how you changed this boy
I will climb them as long as a pulse thumps me into movement


to the North is an ocean of your words
tide pools of sentences
waves of your stories
tsunamis of our arguments
to wash over any fool who braves to sail them
on maps print the words, “Here Be Dragons”
and I’m never sure which will swamp my boat
or carry me home
white-tip arrogance soothed by Sargasso Sea gentle honesty
choppy squalls when I lost myself to ego
pleas for forgiveness offered on Yom Kippur
all the poems over the phone blowing lost sailors to safe ports
someday when I have outlived you
I foresee abandoning shoes,
gripping frail hands on armrests,
rising from wheelchair
striping down to unflattering Speedo
and walking into these waves to drown
up to my ears in the waters of your laughter
filling my lungs with drops of your whispers


in the center is a house of paper
naked 8½ by 11s begging to be bathed in black ink
the first 30 stories are made of rough drafts
in preparation to meet you
the upper stories will be built to celebrate you
and when I reach my 90s
the tower will collapse with the weight
spreading the pages across this county
Billy Collins keeps an apartment across the hall from Derrick Brown
they meet in the lounge with Shane Koyczan and Ed Mabrey
have coffee on Sundays with R.C. Weslowski and Mike McGee,
each reading a new ode to you
they found that week on the cabinet
under the sink or behind the door
banisters Bill Campana will jot haiku from
window frames slam poems Klute will read aloud after bagels
dueling in rhyme with Shappy Seasholtz
sonnets on fireplaces Dan Seaman and Mikel Weisser will read in tandem
on weekends, CR Avery, Scott Dunbar and Lights
will play the ballroom made of canvasses
echoing through the vents all week long
on the upper floors
poets yet unborn ready to join to the conversation
there is room here
for whomever you choose to fill the house with
forgive the flesh of this man
for being made of flawed skin unedited
he knew not what he did
you always liked me better on paper anyway


to the West is an open country
as far as the eye can see
lie no walls nor borders
no future beyond what we make of it,
without a horizon to fall over
sunsets are unimaginable,
the land yearns for your footfalls
and I will chase you across it
until these feet break beneath me
never ask if it was all for naught
until you have seen the country you built here
the boy you reshaped who lives out in the open
uncertain of where to go now
penning poems from dawn to dusk
dreaming of your open arms
reading them to anyone who’ll listen


when you tire of travels
when you need shelter to rest weary limbs
when you want to see a boy left better
than the one you first met
this country is wherever you choose to meet me
ready to welcome you home


I met Azami on Sept. 28, 2009. How my life has changed over the last 12 months.

Studio Live needs 12 spoken word poets for July 17 poetry slam

Studio Live needs 12 spoken word poets for July 17 poetry slam

Sedona's Studio Live needs 12 poets to compete in a poetry slam Friday, July 17, starting at 7:30 p.m.

In late June, a dozen of Arizona's best performance poets competed in a team poetry slam at Sedona's Studio Live. The event drew a packed house that enjoyed three hours of original spoken word as the teams vied for first place in a high-energy bout.

Before the slam was over, the leaders of the Sedona Performers Guild were so moved by the skilled poets' ability to emote that they offered to host a second poetry slam before the team heads off to the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach, Fla., in August.

Video from the June 27 poetry will soon be available on YouTube.

Proceeds from both the June and July poetry slams benefit the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team.

All poets are welcome to compete. Slammers will need three original poems, each lasting no longer than three minutes. No props, costumes nor musical accompaniment are permitted. The poets will be judged Olympics style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam. The top poet at the end of the night wins $50.

Already slated to appear are the five members of the Flagstaff Poetry Slam Team.

Jessica Guadarrama is a Sedona Red Rock High School alumna and current Northern Arizona University student. Guadarrama describes herself as a bilingual Mexican-American. She started writing in eighth grade but it wasn't until ninth grade that she discovered slam poetry when NORAZ Poets held a slam at the SRRHS auditorium.

Frank O'Brien is a 20-year-old student at Coconino Community College, focusing in the general studies and pre-nursing. Originally from Phoenix, O'Brien entered the slam poetry scene in fall 2007. In August 2008, he traveled with Cartier, Brown and Guadarrama to Madison, Wis., as a member of the 2008 Flagstaff National Slam Team. O'Brien is now an active poet and administrator of the FlagSlam Poetry Slam in Flagstaff.

Ryan Brown stated that he is a kid from Phoenix who spends most of his time posing as a writer and poet. He now goes to school and lives in Flagstaff, where he is the SlamMaster of the FlagSlam Poetry Slam.

Antranormus is a hip-hop artist who stated that he constantly seeks to redefine or blur completely the boundaries between hip-hop, poetry and absolute absurdity. Known for his complex, multisyllabic rhyme schemes and controversial subject matter, he has shared the stage with members of the Wu Tang Clan, Jurassic 5, Abstract Rude, Illogic, and Sole.

John Cartier helped revitalize Flagstaff's poetry slam scene two years ago and is on his second nationals team. Cartier is well-known for his politically savvy and socially edgy performance poetry.

The team will represent Northern Arizona against more than 80 other teams from around the country.

Also signed up to compete are:
Prescott Area Poets Association founder, Arcosanti Slab City Slam co-founder and seven-year host Dan Seaman


Sedona MC Fun Yung Moon






Kingman slam poet Mikel Weisser. Son of a nightclub singer, Weisser spent his teens as a hitchhiker. Since then Weisser has gone on to receive a masters in literature and a masters in secondary education, published hundreds of freelance magazine and newspaper articles and political comedy columns, along with seven books of poetry and short fiction. A former homeless shelter administrator, contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," and survivor of his first wife's suicide, Weisser teaches junior high history and English in Bullhead City. He and his wife, Beth, have turned their So-Hi, Ariz., property into a peace sign theme park.

FlagSlam poet Nika Levikov









Vermont slam veteran Kayt Perlman.Just in from Southern Vermont, Perlman aka Kayt Pearl, has recently relocated to Sedona with a deep sigh of relief. The north is cold. Co-founder of Women Divine Acapella & Rhyme, a traveling collaborative installment of all-women expression; Finder/Founder of Sound Foundation, an organization/movement for universal connection and cross cultural understanding through word and sound; northeastern regional slam poetess and co-master and founder of Martial Poetry Slams, the local slam scene in Brattleboro, Vt., local vocaless singer/songwriter and otherwise unknown human just trying to commun-i-kayt with the rest of us.

Recent Sedona Red Rock High School graduate Liana O’Boyle








two-time Haiku National Slam Champion and 2007-2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion Ed Mabrey, who has been a member of and coached several winning Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Teams out of Columbus, Ohio. Mabrey has released two books, "From the Page to the Stage and Back Again" to critical acclaim and "Revoked:My GhettoPass(ivity)" which was a limited release item.Maybrey has released two CDs of his own work, and has been on projects with other artists and DJs.

Mesa National Poetry Slam Team 2009 Grand Slam Champion Tufik "Tom" Shayeb. Shayeb has been writing poetry since 1997. His poems have appeared appearing in several anthologies, including "Lifelines" (2008) and "The Good Things About America" (2009). Additionally, he has published three chapbooks titled "Cracked Verses" (2007), "I'll Love You to Smithereens" (2008), and "How Did Things Get So Janked Up?" (2009); the second and third of which are selections from full-length manuscripts. Aside from slamming original poetry, from 2000-2008 Shayeb programmed the poetry of other authors into ten-minute selections for poetry interpretation performances on pre-collegiate and collegiate circuits. In 2007, he was one of the National Forensic Association's Poetry Interpretation semi-finalists, and then in 2008 he advanced to the American Forensic Association's National Poetry Interpretation quarter-finalist rounds.

Sedona Red Rock High School alumna Julio Perez is known for his graffiti art. His graffiti murals currently fill a 100-foot hallway at SRRHS and various arts venues around Sedona. As a bilingual poet, Perez cut his teeth on the stage performing poetry in both Spanish and English at the Sedona Arts Center, Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village and the Sedona Poetry Open Mic. A lyricist, Perez and his band have also performed around Prescott and the 2007 and 2008 GumptionFests in Sedona.

Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team member Lauren Perry .








The slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff team in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, attending National Poetry Slams in Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, and Albuquerque.

Tickets are $10, available at Studio Live or Golden Word Books, 3150 W. Hwy. 89A. The team needs to raise around $2,000 to fund the trip.

Studio Live is located at 215 Coffee Pot Drive, Sedona. For more information, visit http://studiolivesedona.com.

For more information about the 2009 National Poetry Slam, visit http://nps2009.com.

Dan Seaman

Dan Seaman representing Team Sedona in Round 2 at the Old Town Shootout, Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Old Town Center for the Arts, in Cottonwood, Arizona.
This was my favorite poem of the night.


Video courtesy of Apollo Poetry, of TravelingPoet.com

Old Town Shootout Poetry Slam results

Results from the Old Town Shootout Poetry Slam
The third Poexplosion 3

Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, Old Town Center for the Arts, Cottonwood, Arizona, 7:30 p.m.

Calibration poet Terence Pratt, a professor at Yavapai College and a Cottonwood City Councilman

Round 1

Sedona, Gary Every, 28.8 (1:59:47)
Phoenix, Jose Magana, 28.4 (2:41:29)
Tucson, group poem with Lindsay Miller, Mickey Randleman, Ethan Dickinson and Maya Asher, 28.6 (3:00:43)
Mesa, Tufik Shayeb, 29.6 (2:59:02)
Flagstaff, group poem with Evan, Faldwin, Maple Dewleaf and Brian, 26.1 (2:40:56)

Sorbet poet Jen Valencia, a writer from the Village of Oak Creek

Round 2

Tucson, Mickey Randleman, Ethan Dickinson, Maya Asher, 29.3 (2:34:16)
Mesa, Jonathon Standiford, 30 with -0.5 time penalty (3:19:25)
Flagstaff, Evan, 26.7, with -1.5 time penalty (3:33:25)
Sedona, Dan Seaman, 29.9 with -0.5 time penalty (3:11:00)
Phoenix, Madaleine Beckwith, 28.4 (2:48:41)

---intermission---

Sorbet poet and host Danielle Miller
Sorbet poet Terence Pratt

Round 3

Flagstaff, Maple Dewleaf, 27.1 (1:32:37)
Sedona, Apollo Poetry, 30 (2:58:32)
Phoenix, Megan, 27.7 (2:49:03)
Tuscon, Lindsay Miller, 29.2 (2:24:37)
Mesa, Neil Gearns, 27.6, (2:27:22)

Sorbet poet Kaila Haas, from the Village of Oak Creek and 2007 graduate of Sedona Red Rock High School

Round 4

Phoenix, Lauren Perry, 28.6 with -1.5 time penalty (3:33:06)
Tucson, Maya Asher, 28.4 (2:24:24)
Mesa, Tristan Marshell, 30, (3:08:18)
Flagstaff, Brian, 28.9 (1:36:44)
Sedona, Christopher Fox Graham, 30 with -0.5 time penalty (3:11:18)
Sorbet poet Tara Pollock, from Sedona
Victory poem, Apollo Poetry, Team Sedona

Final scores
Sedona, 117.7
Mesa, 116.7
Tucson, 115.5
Phoenix, 111.6
Flagstaff, 107.3

Slam staff

Scorekeeper: Alun Wile
Timekeeper: Danielle "Deeds" Gervasio
Host: Danielle Miller
Organizers: William Eaton, owner of the Old Town Center for the Arts
Christopher Fox Graham, Sedona 510 Poetry
Richard Hazen, owner of Green Carrot Cafe and D'Lish Very Vegetarian

A series of haiku

Traditional 5-7-5 haiku
Jedi Haiku
We are Jedi Knights
our words are our lightsabers
our Force is the Word

Mother's Day Haiku
I blacked out last night
no, this isn't my blood but
happy Mother's Day

Serial Killer Haiku
Funny you should ask
my trunk can fit two Boy Scouts
and a grandmother

Nicholas is in the Will; I'm a Footnote Haiku
I thought my mother
loved both her sons equally ...
until I saw the will

Heavy Pause Haiku
Then, years afterward,
I realized the problem was ...
...
...
...
... I hesitated

American 17-syllable haiku
My Grammar Can Beat Up Your Grammar Haiku
Why isn't "phonetic"
spelled phonetically?
While you think, let's make out

Dirty Old Man Haiku
And old man told me
the way to stay young
is sleep with 18-year-olds

Ella Garrett Haiku
We copy editors judge you,
reporters,
when you use bad grammar

Crucifixion Haiku (stolen from a joke by Dan Seaman)
Why did Jesus Christ
die on the cross?
Because he forgot the safe word

Bruce Haiku
Fathers should suffer
labor like mothers so they
don't bolt on their sons

Why I Act Like a Child Haiku
The older you get
the younger you feel.
At 40, I'll be fetal

Pudenda Haiku
My hand rests on your cleft:
the moist doorway from where
poems and poets are born

Theory of Relativity Haiku
The illusion of light
traps believers in the past
must move faster

Emigration Haiku
America is taxing my dreams
so I'm moving
to Canada

Arboreal Haiku
A tree falls in the woods
and no one is around.
Termites have no crowd

Insurance Haiku
"Drop your pants
and give me $100."
I hate my HMO.

Call Center Haiku
Work is so boring today.
I'll liven it up
with a homicide

Urban Violence Haiku
We were children once,
remember?
why do you now hold a gun?

Lisa Gaston Haiku
Somehow you can make
the words, "fuck me"
the most romantic phrase I know

Atheist Haiku
You ask why I am an atheist?
Fathers are our models
for God

Punk Rock Chick Haiku
Punk band patches
tats, pink hair, pierced attitude ...
I want her to break me

Michael Bay Haiku
If we're really headed to hell
in a hand basket,
I call shotgun

Why I Need My Sins Haiku
The histories we try to forget
end up
defining who we are

Nearsidedness Haiku
I should have seen
fucking you was dumb;
my testicles need spectacles

Thanksgiving Haiku
Before we start, I
want to say I hate you all.
Pass the salt, aunt Beth

Was it True Love Haiku
Loving you was
endless disappointment
with moments of denial

I Need a Front Page Story Haiku
Wildfires threaten Sedona
but I work for a newspaper.
So light up.

My Longest Relationship was 42 Days Haiku
Whales beach themselves
when they know it's over;
We stayed at sea way too long

Head to Head Haikus
Greg Nix Haiku
Greg Nix once said
he admired me.
Will he slobber on my pecker?

Greg Nix Haiku #2
I doubt it
a bottle, his foot and his shame
already fill his mouth

Damien Flores Haiku #1
Damien is cocky
about his haiku
but he still can't buy beer

Damien Flores Haiku #2
Easy way to win:
"Damien is 20, officer,
and he's drunk."

Why it's Hard to Kill Aaron Johnson With My Car Haiku
God damn lefties!
Aaron Johnson hitchhikes
facing oncoming traffic

State teams converge for Old Town Shootout Poetry Slam

The art of competitive spoken word returns to the Verde Valley with the Old Town Shootout, a high-energy, high-stakes team poetry slam on Saturday, Dec. 13.
Performance poetry communities from around Arizona are sending their best four-poet teams to face off in four rounds of poetic competition. Tickets are $10.
The Old Town Shootout is the third “Poexplosion” team slam poetry event in Arizona. The first took place in Flagstaff in October, the second took place in Tucson in November and the fourth will take place in Phoenix.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., on Dec. 13, teams from Flagstaff, Tucson, Mesa and Phoenix will face off with a local team at the Old Town Center for the Arts, 633 N. Fifth St., Cottonwood.
Your local team consists of veteran slam poets from Sedona including Apollo Poetry, Gary Every and Christopher Fox Graham and Prescott poet Dan Seaman.
Poets from around the Verde Valley will also break up the competition with featured performances between rounds, including Terrence Pratt, a Yavapai College professor from Cottonwood, Jen Valencia, from the Village of Oak Creek, and Sean Mabe, from Sedona.

Team Sedona:
Born in Jerusalem and raised in New Jersey, Apollo Poetry is preparing for a nationwide spoken word tour, "Traveling Poet," being shot for The Travel Channel.
Apollo was featured on MTV's "True Life" with over 10 million viewers, watching in a dozen different countries. In 2007, he became the first spoken word artist to perform at the Billboard Awards.
Apollo's major appearances include VIBE Magazine, The WakeUp Show, Source's Unsigned Hype, Showtime at Apollo, along with performances at Madison Square Garden & America West Arena.
Gary Every has been a geology explorer, carpenter, chef, piano player, punk rocker, dishwasher, photographer, mountain bike instructor, soccer coach and bonfire storyteller.
Published nearly a thousand times, he has four books to his credit, "Cat Canyon Secrets," "Barrio Libre Poems," "Inca Butterflies" and "Drunken Astronomers." Every's poetry has appeared in the last three Rhysling Antholgies and he won the 2005 and 2006 best lifestyle feature awards from the Arizona Newspapers Association for his articles "The Apache Naichee Ceremony" and "Losing Geronimo's Language."
Christopher Fox Graham has been a performance poet since 2001 and represented Flagstaff and Sedona at four National Poetry Slams. In 2002, he co-founded a four-poet, three-month poetry tour in 2002 that performed in 26 U.S. states and Canada.
Graham has performed for MTV's "Made" and on The Travel Channel's "Your Travel Guide" episode of Sedona. He has performed poetry in nearly 40 states, Canada, Ireland and Great Britain. Graham has self-published four poetry chapbooks and been published in three Northern Arizona poetry journals, three poetry slam anthologies, two spoken word CDs and two slam poetry DVDs.
One of the most distinguished voices in Arizona poetry, Dan Seaman is a second generation Arizona native and has lived in the Prescott area for 36 years. In 1997, Seaman formed the Prescott Area Poets Association to promote poetry as performance art and has been hosting open mics and special poetry evenings ever since.
Seaman co-founded the Arcosanti Statewide Slab City Slam in 2000 and hosted the event until 2007.
Seaman hosts “Two-Lane Blues,” a blues and spoken word show aired Sunday evenings on KJZA 89.5 FM, the Prescott affiliate of National Public Radio.

What is slam?
Created in Chicago in 1984, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport. Poetry slams are judged by five random members of the audience who assign numerical value to individual poets’ content and performance.

For tickets or more information about the Cottonwood poetry slam, call the Old Town Center for the Arts at 928-634-0940.
Additional ticket outlets include Green Carrot Café, Jerona Café and the Desert Dancer in Cottonwood; Golden Word Bookstore and Crystal Magic, in Sedona; The Worm bookstore in the Village of Oak Creek; and The Sage Post, in Jerome.

Prohibition Era Speakeasy Party

These are Gregg's photos. In all, there were between 70 and 80 people. Only about 10 were not in costume. Not everyone was photographed, obviously.
David and Dylan
Ashley Wintermute
Aaron and Michelle
Michelle
Richard, Sean, Robert, and Dylan
Molly, Kera and Deeds
Michelle and Bri
Fiona, Richard, Ashley and me
Ashley
Paula, Gitangelique, Daniel and Aaron
Michelle ... I think Gregg liked shooting photos of her
Matthew Horstman, Kelly Cole and Jen Valencia, and at the bar, Dan Seaman, Zach and bartender David Reed
Aaron , Brandon, Lou, Zach, and Michelle
Paula, Gitangelique, Aaron, and Daniel
Gitangelique and Aaron
Lori-Ann, Sean, Michelle and Dave Harvey
Zach, Aaron, Gitangelique, Michelle, Bri and Glenn
Aaron and Michelle
Daniel, Gitangelique and Aaron
Richard, Sean and Robert
KuK and Sean
Jen, Matthew, Sean and Zach
KuK
Me, Richard, Ashley and Ian.
KuK and Porengui
Glenn, Gitangelique, Bri and Matthew Horstman
Michelle, Sean, Porungui, Dave Harvey and Lori-Ann (that's her thumb)