poetry, that which had never failed
failed
all i invented were new ways to arrange things as time On my nerves
every word they say another source of fucking chagrin
in poetry as life, forms appear meaningless before my anger. i cannot find “a logic” aside
from straight dope capable to pierce the exactitude of pure rage. losing the original
thread or intention of the poem emotionally or its having spent itself in encounter with
its Master emotion

Simone White (an excerpt from or, on being the other woman)

So far this year, I have read mostly poetry. I am wondering why I even read poems when I don’t understand most of them. Unlike novels and nonfiction, poems are short; therefore, I can read them whenever I have a few minutes here and there. I can pick up a poem whenever and I don’t have to try to remember what I have read already.

Reading poetry has replaced my endless scrolling on social media networks. I don’t spend time on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn anymore and I have no desire to check out TikTok, Instagram, or any new social media networks. I am becoming anti-social online and poetry keeps me company.

Without a doubt, I am still a novice poetry reader. I don’t have the technical skills to break down poems; therefore, I rely primarily on my own understanding of what I can pick up. My poetry book reviews are based on my own level of comprehension. I can’t tell if a poem is good or bad. I can only tell if a poem speaks to me or not.

When I first started to write about music, I wanted to communicate what I heard. Even though I had no formal music training, I could pick up music elements such as melodies, harmonies, rhythms, vocals, lyrics, arrangements, orchestrations, and improvisations. With poetry, I don’t have a clue. I can’t figure out the format such as the breaks, the spaces, and the flows. Sometimes poems with unique structures I couldn’t tell if I were supposed to read from left to right or top to bottom. I might audit a few classes to learn to appreciate poetry.

Then again, I am always excited when I come across a poem that I could understand. Even if I could find one poem from a collection I read, I am happy with that. Reading poetry books has become finding poems I could post on my blog. To celebrate the National Poetry Month, I will post a poem a day for the entire month of April. Subscribe to my RSS feed for poetry or bookmark my poetry category and enjoy.

I am an ignorant fucker. difficult to be close to in that i am unsentimental and intimate with everyone. This is connected to the problems I am working through regarding metaphor. As a form of patriarchal control over language and a currency of poetic power. My ex-husband calls me an “ignorant fucker” when I complain that his hugely pregnant white girlfriend, who I do not know who I tolerate since for the last month and indefinite future my son must live in her house two days in a week, cannot show up unannounced in my child’s classroom where I pay all the bills and I watch and half do nothing and half help in the acquisition of literacy and reason. I say this is no place for this white woman; she is a free rider on my labor and love for my son. I will not support any white people with my work. I tell him all of this pretty loudly. He calls me an ignorant fucker. Now you are street? What, are you going to punch her in her face? I have fought exactly three people with physical violence in my forty-six years of life. Two men. And my sister.

Simone White (an excerpt from or, on being the other woman)

I didn’t get most of the poems. I am not sure what to make of them. I don’t have the words to describe them. I just couldn’t connect. Maybe I should reread the series again.

Every few months I have to perform an upgrade on Ubuntu. My WordPress droplet usually has about 80 updates that can be applied immediately. The upgrade process is not so bad. I have to power down the server and make a snapshot of the droplet, which takes about five minutes to complete. Two days ago, I did the upgrade and removed unused packages. WordPress’s Site Health gave me 4 errors, including the failure of scheduling post and some caching issues. I ended up restoring an old backup from four days ago. I will not remove unused packages in the future. In any rate, I wish I could enable automatic minor and security updates for Ubuntu so I don’t have to do the updates myself. I did the AutomaticSecurityUpdates, but it didn’t seem to work. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

I didn’t understand much from this collection. Though I enjoyed “To My Mother’s Father.” McCrae’s writing requires slow reading and re-reading. I tend to just read through them to find something I can share on my blog.

after Jasmine Mans

“400 years of slavery sounds like a choice”
Kanye Omari West

Celebrity is a ghost town. I can’t deny that you are free or ill—white marble floors, calabasas, paris, glasgow, lonely heartsore son of Black academia-chasing spirits like a moth chases flame.

I love you like boys who grew up Black as me in the burbs, my day 1’s and play cousins. We never dreamed of growing up and being you. A star is not a sun without planets in orbit, and we orbited you like moons. You, diamond-cased name-brand deity of Otis Redding and Chaka Khan samples, rap fanboy turned it boy, multimillionaire by marriage and major record sales, collector of awards along mansion walls.

We can’t tell you nothin, nah, but we can tell that right; money got you believin there was an option other than the yo money ain’t ship, or the jaws of a shark, got you thinkin whip, fist, rope, and poplar tree were not the only destinations besides house or field, got you forgettin enslaved Africans were born and raised on plantations, sold, rented, or freed by death off plantations, got you blankin on written passes enslaved folk needed just to leave plantations, got you slow to state the police state is an evolution of 19th century slave catchers-why get yo money right just to get yo history wrong?

Who are we without our ancestry, Ye? Who are you without the musicians you resurrect through samples? How can you say race doesn’t matter anymore when the media won’t acknowledge your mental wellness, but will empathize with white nationalist shooters? You were right about one thing: no one man should have all that power. You are mortal after all, not a G/god, or the son of one. You are your Momma’s Blackboy, from chicagoland, who rapped and made soul beats until the world took notice.

Who would’ve guessed what idol-worship and riches could draw out of you. Your world is so distant from mine, I fear hear me even if you heard this, but Kanye, I hope you live to remember the immeasurable strength our grandest parents had, you can’t and the sacrifices they made to survive. What more can we ask of those who risked it all for our chance to be? We hold them in flesh and spirit; we are their wildest dreams.

Sean Avery Medlin

A sensual, emotional collection, Ama Codjoe’s Bluest Nude delves into sex, grief, and beauty. Her writing is descriptive, provocative, and yet accessible. I understand and love quite a few pieces in here.

One of the recurring themes from Computers in Libraries 2023 was the focus on the websites. Speakers talked about site design, user experience, and content strategy. They also discussed about quitting social media.

For Libraries, websites remain our homebase. Unlike social media networks, our library websites have no ads, no privacy issues, and definitely no misinformations. As a result, we should not send our users to social media, but the other way around. We have control of our sites, not social media. We provide accurate information on our site and we have no idea what type of information being pushed on social media.

I am glad to hear that librarians put their focus and effort into their websites instead of someone else’s. Library websites are still trustworthy online presence for institutions and organizations.

In my current role, I am no longer in charge of the Law School or Law Library social media. My focus is primarily on our websites. We are about to embark on a whole new direction for our main site. I don’t know how that will play out.

In my personal space, I focus only on my websites, particularly this blog. I haven’t posted anything on social media in a while. I have been tempted to deactivate them all. I also don’t have any desire to try another social media platform.

At least at the moment, my career in web design is still good. Social media networks come and go, but our sites will stay for a while. That’s my take from the conference.

All my time has been focused on my freedom now
Why would I join ’em when I know that I can beat ’em now?
They put their words on me, and they can eat ’em now
That’s probably why they keep on tellin’ me I’m needed now
They tried to box me out while takin’ what they want from me
I spent too many years livin’ too uncomfortably
Making room for people who didn’t like the labor
But wanted the spoils, greedy, selfish behavior
Now let me give it to you balanced and with clarity
I don’t need to turn myself into a parody
I don’t, I don’t do the shit you do for popularity
They clearly didn’t understand when I said “I Get Out” apparently
My awareness like Keanu in The Matrix
I’m savin’ souls and y’all complainin’ ’bout my lateness
Now it’s illegal for someone to walk in greatness
They want the same shh, but they don’t take risks
Now the world will get to see its own reflection
And the anointed can pursue their own direction
And if you’re wrong and you’re too proud to hear correction
Walk into the hole you dug yourself, fuck a projection
See me in my freedom takin’ all my land back
They said a lot against me thinkin’ I’d just stand back
I got my legs beneath me, I got my hands back
A lot of people sabotaged, they couldn’t stand that
I turned the other cheek, I took blow after blow
There’s so much crisis in the world ’cause you reap what you sow
When you keep what you know is meant for someone else
The ditch you dig for them, you might just end up in yourself
I’m in the secret place, I keep a sacred space
They keep showin’ their hands, but keep hidin’ their face
If I’m a messenger, you block me then you block the message
So aggressive, the world you made is what you’re left with
Pride and ego over love and truth is fuckin’ reckless
Y’all niggas got a death wish, the stupid leaves me breathless

Lauryn Hill (a verse from Nas’s “Nobody”)