"loser" poetry

I talked to Jay of Curbside Twist LLC last night at Little Lou's in lieu of the usual Haven people, who had either blown off the night or left early with some biker chicks on a trip I wasn't invited to be a part of :( . Jay talked about his past in Trinidad, the intricacies of marketing, and argued with another guy Max about outsourcing (Jay was against it). At one point Jay made a graph illustrating various bottom lines and modes of power, using beer bottles, Max's phone, a pack of Newports, etc. Then Max turns to me, asks me what my passion is, I say "poetry" so he leans back says ok do some.

I tell him that I already thought this out, I've already looked ahead to the point in the evening when someone would ask me to do poetry, and I'd already thought about how I would say that me not reciting poetry then and there was kind of the basis of my poetry, that basis of being "a loser", not a "do-er" like these two entrepreneurial gentlemen. I've got "do-er"s in my family: my sister was focused on her future since middle school, shot up like a rocket through Ivy League and kept going, now lives in Philadelphia doing some kind of work with NPR, raising millions per year. My brother just started a business education at Pitt... we'll see if he gets as far...

Jay was selling his business persona the way some business people will do anytime they meet someone in a bar... like it's not just your full-time job, it's your nightlife too. That kinda state is my ideal goal for my poetry, to be a poet "around the clock."So what to do when someone asks you to do poetry "on the spot"? Well, I'm really into surrealism...--poetryburgh@gmail.com