me kissing you: me kissing Sarah

Sunday, November 25, 2012

me kissing Sarah

Meet Sarah Webb, educator, poet, editor . . . not sure what all. She is in the current edition of The Blue Rock Review and she was at the release party for the new volume yesterday. I went to the party with the notion of maybe getting some literary kisses for my blog, but I admit I was feeling a bit shy. My multidisciplinary life sometimes leaves me unbalanced when I switch from my performance life to my writing life (or vice versa). It's hard to explain,

At the party, during the readings, editor Billy Crockett would call up three of us at a time. Sarah and I were in the same group. As I sat one bar stool over from Sarah and watched her read her poem, "St. Vitus Dance," I fell a little bit in love. She didn't just read it, she performed it. I guess it was some kind of affirmation that I was still among my people, in the right tribe.

She was the first person at the party I asked to kiss---even before all the people I knew well---and she broke the ice.

Look at that beautiful smile. I'm glad she was game to play along.

1 comment:

Sarah WebbNovember 25, 2012 at 8:47 PM
A fun idea--and fun to be kissed!
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about this blog . . .

So 2011 saw me dealing with a bad 2010 by posting a picture of myself, taken first thing every morning, as some kind of conceptual art project. You can see all 365 blurry, bleary photos here.

As it was, at it's core, a response to loneliness, I knew it was not something I could or should sustain beyond the one year boundary I initially set for it. But I sort of liked this photo blogging thing . . .

So I decided the next logical step was to reach out to other people. Not just reach out, but cross some of my own comfort zones and kiss them. Not on the mouth, not in a romantic or sexual way, just a kiss on the cheek.

So, this year, I plan on kissing as many people as I can. I won't even try to kiss someone everyday, but in various situations, I may just ask someone, "hey, can I kiss you and photographically document the event?" If they say no, no worries, I'll move on. If they say yes, I'll say, "I have this tiny release form granting me permission." (It is a tiny release form, postcard size.)

It's a small way to get me out of a rut I'm in and also to spread a little love. In the ancient Christian church, there was the custom of the "kiss of peace" (which survives in liturgical churches today as "passing the peace," usually signified by a handshake). I think of this exercise as something of passing the peace, too, of offering a kiss of peace to whoever will let me do it. And document it.

Wait---there's more! You can be kissed, too! If you're in the Houston area and would like to be kissed by me, let me know. Or if you're coming to Houston. Or even if you're not in Houston or coming to Houston, but want to be on a list of potential kissees, in the event that I might be traveling to where you are (I get up Austin a few times a year, I hope to get to Chicago this year, etc.), let me know that, too. you never know where I might pop up. Email me at neilellisorts (at) yahoo dot com.