what it is peoples, it's your boy ant fresh from la isla del encanto, mi tierra linda, puerto rico. I just went on a little vacation for a week and learned so much. this will be an annual event out there. i performed at the nuyorican cafe en viejo san juan, built with so many incredible poetas, and felt like this life thing called art and this art thing called life are starting to make some sense. wrote some fire, and trying to finish the book.

had lunch with willie out there (props) and the ball needs to move. NOW.

great things about my PR trip:
-the Puerto Rican basketball team slayed the Dream Team 2k4 by like 19 points. Carlos Arroyo is the man and I need that jersey.
-my first Medalla Light.
-numerous Presidentes
-Museo de la Herencia Africana. Check it.
-El Batey bar and lounge.
-Rumba bar and lounge.
-taking public transit out there. 25cents for a bus!! F*ck $2!
-two great movies: Alien v Predator, hilarious if you love both those movies. another much more serious, Te Doy Mis Ojos, a Spanish movie about abusive relationships. Both movie tickets: $5 each. Movie food including popcorn, nachos (my girl), gummi snacks and soda: $7. What a country!
-Caleta de las Monjas. Nice apartment, cheap price. Shoutout to Justin and Kelly two dudes from NC staying in a closet. No, literally. If people ever want to stay in PR for a decent price, check out. www.thecaleta.com
-Condado, Ocean Park, Isla Verde beaches contributing to me looking a lot less palefaced.
-linking up with Abdel, Manuel, Miguel (vamos pa blunt), Kiara (un exchange), and Gargs (Angel Boricua Fall'95 founder of Mu Chapter)
-los gatitos de San Juan Gate living life to the fullest
-Casa de Don Q. the realest rum in the world. free drinks everyday.
-BarraChina, El Parador, Cafe Puerto Rico, and of course the world famous La Bombonera.Why don't they have Mallorcas here in NYC?
-Duty Free Store!!!
-so much more stuff I can't think of now b/c of that fire last night, but I will leave you with this image: a huge sign in the airport saying: It is illegal to carry pigeon peas on your trip. Prohibido traer gandules.

F*ck Rosello! Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!

*el viejito dice la verdad*

el mundo va a cagar
y caer encima
de nosotros
no ahora
pero ahorrita

inspired i guess tonite.. julia de burgos is powerful ain't she? she lets you know how it is...and how it should be.

“Sensacional cuando salio en la madrugada, a mediodia ya la noticia confirmada, en la tarde materia olvidada”---Periodico de Ayer, Hector Lavoe

i feel like posting things that make me think so they make you think....that's where i'm headed....

the reverend's last interview...he prescribes what our future should be.....

"First draft is you scribbling it on a notebook, or a paper, or a napkin and you read it there. And if you make mistakes, man, it makes the poem much more interesting and exciting, and that’s when history started being made....Spanglish is not an indication of an inferior mind, but it is an indication of an imagination that should be completely fertile. You got to be brilliant, not dumb!...I want to get better. I am getting better, but not by following orders. I have to do my own thing..... There’s no end to the phenomenon, The First Draft Nuyorican Poetry Movement."

props to acentos...new shit!!!

-ma dukes-
life
is a
kick
in the
cunt

-stuck-
sometimes
the greatest feeling
is feeling everything
at once
or
nothing at all

-artistic integrity-
f*ck you
if
reading this
hurts
your sensibilities
of
my capabilities

-get the drop-
fams
watch
your back
front
and sides
cops be
everywhere
looking at us
just for chilling
don't sleep

I Was My Own Route (Yo misma fui mi ruta)

Julia de Burgos

I wanted to be like men wanted me to be:

an attempt at life;

a game of hide and seek with my being.

But I was made of nows,

and my feet level on the promissory earth

would not accept walking backwards

and went forward, forward,

mocking the ashes to reach the kiss

of new paths.

At each advancing step on my route forward

my back was ripped by the desperate flapping wings

of the old guard.

But the branch was unpinned forever,

and at each new whiplash my look

separated more and more and more from the distant

familiar horizons;

and my face took the expansion that came from within,

the defined expression that hinted at a feeling

of intimate liberation;

a feeling that surged

from the balance between my life

and the truth of the kiss of the new paths.

Already my course now set in the present,

I felt myself a blossom of all the soils of the earth,

of the soils without history,

of the soils without a future,

of the soil always soil without edges

of all the men and all the epochs.

And I was all in me as was life in me .. . .

I wanted to be like men wanted me to be:

an attempt at life;

a game of hide and seek with my being.

But I was made of nows;

when the heralds announced me

at the regal parade of the old guard,

the desire to follow men warped in me,

and the homage was left waiting for me.

here

this is how it is/was supposed to be for me

wide open spaces alive broken places

glass bottle tops empty snack boxes smashed cups

queen w/ filthy mouths dirty water dogs

old youths new handshakes future balers

raid lunchrooms for milkcrates peers fascinated

by thick loose thighs overpriced trees expensive

cars bootleg brand name clothes bored church

going icy house Astacio overprotected jewels

babies makin babies passion flowers blossom up

history repeats itself tomorrow will be that song

that gets played out too quick