blurry eyed

I'm never quite sure what to talk about when going into a class. But they certainly seemed more awake than I used to be in 8am classes. They asked me about why I used food as a metaphor for sex, referring to the balut poems I wrote for "Eros Pinoy." To which I answered, as written they are not erotic, they are simply erotic in the context that I placed them in. OK, so that was a bit of a diplomatic cop out. But it is difficult writing good erotic poetry and food is an easy way to work in desire.

Brought a stick and a sword. Decided not to do kali demonstration, wasn't quite feeling it this morning and well, swords are dangerous when you're not quite feeling it.

They asked me what my major was in Berkeley, since I told them that I was class of 1997. I proudly told them I was a science major and had aspirations of being a physical therapist. Obviously, I didn't end up there. I don't know what major these students have chosen, but it's nice to put out there that a writer/artist can be a science major. It took me a while to accept that I could still be a writer even though I wasn't from a "writing" degree.

I think the difficulty of it all was that I was discussing kali and poetry and one could expound a great deal about both. And how do you explain what kali is, if you've never seen it, and how does this thing you've never seen change how one writes. I did write an essay on it, but in many ways I still haven't seen all the ways in which the kali influences my writing at least from a 3rd person analysts view. Instead at the end, I read a few poems. And hoped one of them might figure it out for me.

Then all of a sudden 45 minutes had flown by and we were done. I don't know if I left them with more questions than answers. It's a lot for a blurry eyed morning. We'll see what they say on their blogs.