poetry...

Loneliness 
By Jan Michael Alejandro

Loneliness wrings out the heart and empties the soul.
It stretches out time and never rests.
Loneliness is powerful and subtle. It strengthens and weakens.
It blinds while clarifying inner vision and feelings.
Emptiness that longs for passion, hope that longs for miracles.
Potent as love, deadly as hate,
Loneliness, a true color of life.
Its absence would disrupt the spectrum of reality.
Loneliness rings out the heart and opens the soul.

Solidão (Loneliness)
Translated and spoken by Aline Furlan from Brazil

Solidão  aperta o coração e esvazia a alma. 
Estende o tempo e nunca descansa. 
Solidão é poderoso e sútil. Fortalece e enfraquece. 
Nos cega enquanto clareia nosso interior e sentimentos. 
Vazio que anseia por paixão, espero que anseie por milagres. 
Potentes como amor, mortal como o ódio, 
Solidão, verdadeira cor da vida. 
Sua ausência perturbaria o espectro da realidade. 
Solidão toca o coração e abre a alma.

I’m A Shit
By Jan Michael Alejandro
Spoken by Jane Ormerod  From  London

I’m a shit, but only to myself.
I try not to be a shit, but I was born this way… I guess.
I’m sure there are other shits out there. Shits that go to church, shits that celebrate mother’s days, shits that don’t admit they’re shits…
I admit it. It doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it right..
I’m a shit… not in a good way, like “I’m the Shit.”
Or not because I feel bad like “I feel like shit.”
Who cares anyway?… Me?… Others?
Naw, they don’t give a shit!
If I go to a therapist and tell him that I am a shit, he’ll probably ask me why?
I’ll say  “because,” write him a check, then leave his office still a shit.

Here are a couple of poems from Jan's International Spoken Word CD, "What's Mine Is Now Yours," being released in 2011.
(All poems c2011 Jan Michael Alejandro & Minkette Music BMI)

"Ordinary Life" Video
Endless Joy
by Jan Michael Alejandro
Spoken by Kat Georges from New York City  & San Francisco, Yoshiko Fujii from Japan
Peter Calfaters The Bronx & San Francisco

Endless joy does end
Undying love does die
Life has no meaning.
Yet hope still flickers.

Photo "Jan In Big Black Car" by Frank Mutascio / Mutascio Graphics San Diego, CA
What’s Mine Is Now Yours
by Jan Michael Alejandro
Read by Sophia Balestri (France)
 
Here, take it, read it
What’s mine is now yours
The words on the page
as it reads through you
are no longer mine
It takes on new purpose
develops new rhyme.

Here, take it, see it
What’s mine is now yours
Strokes on the canvas
as it paints through you
are no longer mine
It takes on new vision
that changes in time.
 
Here, take it, sing it.
What’s mine is now yours
The notes in each measure
as it plays through you
are no longer mine
It takes on new feeling
with most every line…

c2024  Jan Michael Alejandro
c2024 Nail Soup Publishing
c2024  Minkette Music
A tentative release date of his international spoken word CD, "What's Mine Is Now Yours," is scheduled for Fall 2011. You can hear some of the poems here. CD release parties are planned for NYC and LA. Following the release there will be promotional readings scheduled.

Jan was a featured poet at the Three Rooms Press 4th annual dADa pOeTRy sALOn 4, on March 18th, 2011 at the Cornelia Street Cafe NYC . This is his third year participating at this event.  Jan read with New York actress, Linnea Sage, 
"Why do you Sound Like a Pig" and 
"We Lock The Doors," 
a tribute to the workers 
who lost their lives in the 
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in NY, on March 25th 1911.
 
 


Friday, March 18th, 6pm
 
Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia St
(between 4th St & Bleecker St) 
New York, NY 10014
Neighborhood: West Village