Rooftop Poetry Club - Liz Mariani

Liz Mariani

Bio:
Liz Mariani is a moody, vibrant poet and spoken word curator in Allentown, Buffalo at Spoken Word Sundays at the Hardware. Liz feels blessed to live in such a spectacular city and describes Buffalo as a wise old woman; she speaks softly, slowly, with weight.

Poems:

names of books

radiator compulsions
bridged by pain
and twitching

keyboard's in the freezer
computer's in the oven

society paused in fear

caller i.d.'s union
sunbathing through armageddon

children deserve parents who had a chance to be children
sleeping on the highway
the oceans laugh at the continents

frequencies of responsibility
teenage mother pregnant with words
two spirits and other outcasts declare
the wolves are crying sheep

it is an underground railroad

it is an underground railroad alive in this place
it is an internal seascape we can escape from this race
it is an invisible hummer churning burning
a mount saint helen's murmur
it is the heartbeat lungbreath timespace remembrance
i am proud of this place for protecting her people when it came to it
when it came down
to the nitty gritty of leaving escaping going north to avoid going west
it is an underground railroad alive in this place
in my voice your yawn our laughter
the a m radio buzzes
by the wayside i have stood and watched the world turn
it is a chasm an abnormality a beautiful cosmic deity
she screams participate in this resistance the completion the manifestation
of the freedom we run for we bike for we speak for
she screams woman women ladies girls babies, participate in this resistance the completion
the nurturing of freedom
cannot be left idle . it is not work better done some one else.
it is you
the nurturing of freedom
this train line always runs through my town, this town, our town, is by the water
question is
woman will you please stop searching for your ticket, your bags, your mission
will you please stop stop stop stop stop
please stop
look fight teach love speak heal go to the water
look fight teach love speak heal go to the water
look fight teach love speak heal go to the water

i know you are warm

i know you are warm in your mother's
arms confused by this
in all the ridiculous labeling of peacemakers
and mothers
of lovers and haters
when the furious reality makes the world
feel like the rwanda we helped happen
by standing by
waiting for nothing
unhappy with nothing
when a woman loves a woman
or a man loves a woman
i just want safety
and i almost sacrificed living for safety
i know you are warm in your mother's arms
confused by this
but i say i would marry you
to love you as the formal friend
this world denies us the time to love
and i wonder if women are loving and living in
bagdad tonight
or are they just living