I am losing my mind; no, I have lost my mind.

Ever since my laptop caught on fire, nothing has been the same; I simply cannot keep up with the self I have created over the past few years. My deepest loss has been the lack of Living Poetry Projects in my life. I’m finding that The Living Poetry Project is my great source for hope. I can’t help but live poetry; even now, I am coming up with schemes for the next project and figuring out creative ways to get wifi back into my life.

Without a laptop, I’ve been reluctantly relearning how to write poems by hand; I forgot how poems originally came to me as drawings—how the poems were once crafted from the sounds of life around me, not the drive of clock-like ticking keyboard.

My writing process has slowed down. W A Y D O W N.

I’m not sure if I like this slow pace—I’ve grown accustom to the mad dash of ideas—the violence of words—the hours of striking symbols onto page, only to find I have no recollection for the actually text I’ve craved. The emergence from emergency—I miss it.

But, I’m excited to see what the necessity of paper, ink, and cursive have to teach me.

I recently had a conversation with the amazing poet, Vejea Jennings. Vejea is a slow process poet—he must engage with every single aspect of the poem before releasing it into the universe. He watches the sound of poems in mirrors; he collaborates with other artists to understand the motions of the words; he lives his poems into existence.

Vejea’s process produces a unique product—a product of process.

To add to Vejea’s gift of great writing, he has offered his book Free Lunch as a free ebook and audio book!

As soon as I read, hear, and watched Vejea’s work, I had to share it.

Lucky for me, I was off to the theater—specifically, Moliere’s The Bungler at the new home of A Noise Within. (This show is great! Poet Richard Wibur does an amazing job with the translation. This show is all poetry.)

With the help of some lovely AVC students (big thanks to Genna and Marcella who were on the field trip with me), we hid Vejea’s gorgeous poems all over the gorgeous theater. Nothing is more fun than an play within a play within a play.

Vejea’s Free Lunch

Free Lunch is a multifaceted art diet including a fully-illustrated ebook and a sonically dynamic audiobook. This project is free to the public and brought to you by the author Vejea Jennings, executive producers Arash Haile and Abe Cajudo, and other artists who love you like all things free.