RAINBOW C O N N E C T I O N S

I think truth is a rainbow. Yes. They say when you see someone's true colors you're really seeing them. And to see someone's true colors means to see the truth. So truth must be many colors. Don't ya think?

—my favorite actress, Parker Posey, in Dinner at Fred's

Either The Muppet Show has me thinking about life, or life has me thinking about The Muppet Show. That’s the way it goes for me, and all of me is in my poems, muppoems.

TV has told me things my entire life, and my voice instinctively reflects this. I carry my favorite television show around with me, and so, if even indirectly, it'll show. I remember hearing the “Rainbow Connection” in The Muppet Movie for the very first time at my grandparent's house and becoming instantly curious as to what it meant, where exactly it was, and when and how I was going to find it "someday."

Now, at my life’s mid-point (crisis), I determined to create an answer for myself. I assigned an element and color of the rainbow to correspond with each season of The Muppet Show, and then embarked on writing a piece for every episode. I separated my work into six books:

MUPPOEMS CONTENTS:

💛YELLOW rocks SEASON 1💛

of Separation

🧡ORANGE wood SEASON 2:🧡

Outsider Works

💔RED fire SEASON 3💔
Red Hot Popcorn

💙BLUE water SEASON 4💙

BLUE 4 U

💚GREEN metal SEASON 5💚

all there is to be

💜PURPLE wind THE WORKS💜

6° (of Separation):

dear god,

someday is now

Each poem has its own temperature from the received emotions after the time of transmission. Each is separate, with absolutely nothing to do with the other, or The Muppet Show, or the guest star. Not really. The Muppet Show has continually proven to be a springboard for my imagination. Just as one need not go to the exact geographical spot of a poet to have an idea of his/her poem's nature, one need not watch the show in order to have an understanding.

After reading some of James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, I realized my work has that modern edge, and it clearly stems from a similar channel, despite me not knowing. In Graham Robb’s biography of the famed rebel poet, Rimbaud, he notes that "experiments with language are also investigations into the self."

Each poem’s subject matter comes from a feeling about my life and the world that an episode emotes in me, or that I relate back to the show. The words I use to express myself are references to the guest star’s work or the show’s content, yet each individual poem is its own island. What can I say? I love the variety show format. The connective thread between all of them is my queer voice. Essentially, I am dealing with relationship issues within the lenses of life like everyone, but as an obsessive person, I cannot help but express my self unconcealed to the truth that I have a neurosis from the media. All the while, this project is a way for me to organize my favorite show inside my head.

I remember my moppet self as a worrywart. When I got older, it never really went away, and like many people, I run with manic depression, anxiety, paranoia, shame, self doubt, and the whole gambit that causes me to think negatively. Despite all the things I have to be grateful for, I feel like life has taught me to be fearful. I don’t know if this will ever go away, but in growing up, I’ve learned some coping mechanisms.

I’ve met a lot of people, and the majority of who all find the Muppets to bring joy. Some people say they are scared of them, which confuses me personally, but I accept it. Anyway, concerning the majority, I think that is one reason why I’ve always gravitated towards them, and why they found their way to be this writer’s Muses. No matter how dark of a place my mind goes, the Muppets' existence allows me not to lose my sense of humor and/or hope. The critical part of my brain wants to tell me that the Muppets have given me a false sense of idealism. Discovering rainbow connections IRL (in real life) have helped me to remain positive and not give into that sense of doubt and worry. The Muppets have helped me to try to believe in a higher interconnected power. That is what serendipity has done for me. People often ask me, "well what does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!" and I ask my self the same question. In my past, I used to think that I could interpret the 'signs.' But I'm afraid to...

I love to suggest to people to experience 'the experience' of the The Dark Side of the Rainbow phenomenon. If you play Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon with Jim Henson's favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, starting at the third roar of the MGM lion, you will discover synchronicity (even without smoking marijuana).

I started this project trying to put together the pieces of my self, and since then, the poems helped fortify my desperate hold on a belief system of hidden magics. When I was in Africa, I read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, which talks about "omens." Coelho writes: "If I could, I'd write a huge encyclopedia just about the words 'luck' and 'coincidence.' It's with those words that the Universal Language is written." I then discovered that author, James Redfield, calls the coincidences, "insights." Trying to follow them, life imitates art, & so I found, Milan Kundera, who calls the occurrences "fortuities." For me, I've always called them "connections." If by some strange coincidence some one reads a poem and then watches its corresponding episode of The Muppet Show, well I would definitely be curious to hear if any connections occur for you, dear dreamer...

Frogs & Pigs Black & White God & Science

Destiny & Choice Dreams & Reality

Poetry & Television

Different things

belong together.

To take the advice of Jim Henson and be simple, this project is a collage of love letters to all the museums of music & musicals & movies & & manuscripts & mediums that have played such a huge part in coloring my o-so-amusing life. Fuzziness aside, perhaps one day, just maybe, it may serve as a warning to others on how powerful the media machine truly is, and to bear in mind who has power over its transmissions. Ugh and now streaming.