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Sarah Kay, performing at Gray Area in San Francisco, CA.
About Button:
Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
The minister of loneliness Has abolished email He is installing tin cans to every Windowsill With a piece of string to someone else’s Window Not several Just one Each person of course does not need a Lot of people to speak to just the one But the one must be reliable must be Available when needed We are employing a buddy system now Every day is a field trip to the Adulthood museum and we don’t go home Until everyone has been accounted for The way you find your buddy Is a nationwide game of guess who Where you sing the song that is always Stuck in your head Describe the movie you can’t get through Without crying the hardest you’ve ever Laughed the outfit you wish you could Pull off and the only person who can Spot you Is the one you are assigned All of japan is a ball of string now The economy has ground to a halt Productivity is entirely impossible Sometimes you go to talk into the tin Can on your window and a knot in the String accidentally gives you someone Else’s conversation the fading fabric of Someone else’s loneliness evaporating
Into the air between buildings You are allowed to eavesdrop But so is everyone else The minister of loneliness has moved all Kindergartens to the ground floor of Elderly assisted living homes there are Daily story hours animal shelters across The street the minister of loneliness Has not abolished valentine’s day but Has instituted a nationwide bring enough For the class regulation and nobody goes Home empty-handed the minister of Loneliness has prescribed therapy for Everyone daily walks through the many Gardens opportunities for meditation by A brook in the rain under falling Blossoms or along a snowy riverbank Depending on the season he has Commissioned musicians and actors and Poets to create concerts and radio plays And poetry readings to be pumped across The knotted tin can radial lines every Evening when you order dinner for one The person who delivers it arrives with An appropriate ability and comfort level Dance instruction video and two hours to Spare Grieving is encouraged and art making is Rampant but because of the knots Sometimes when you are expecting a visit From a grief counselor the dance partner Food delivery arrives instead sometimes They are the same person the minister of Loneliness isn’t tired he is the most
Popular man in the country he has a Crush on a middle school teacher across Town and everyone eavesdrops to hear the Way he stumbles when she answers Everyone is on the edge of their seats Everyone forgets about dying because They can’t wait to see what happens next Everyone has opinions the minister has To start a hotline where people can call In to tell him their thoughts the tin Cans rattle non-stop the minister is Grateful for the advice but is nervous His crush will hear the commotion he is Nervous she prefers quiet but he does Not know for sure yet he does not know What she is thinking or how she prefers Her tea or whether she likes to walk in The rain But he likes wandering When no one is paying attention When the window sills are quiet Late at night awake He does like to wonder [Applause] You
