08-17-2026
CAConrad
Introduction to
(Soma)tic Poetry Rituals
by CAConrad
My family has been working in factories for generations. As a teenager in the 1980s, I wanted nothing to do with the factories and ran off to Philadelphia to live my life as a poet. For years, I had been writing and living as I wanted, but then in 2005, I made new friends who were students in a creative writing graduate program. These new friends had a different kind of connection to their living and writing than I did. Eventually, I realized the difference originated in our childhoods. They had doctors, lawyers, and engineers for parents, whereas I came from a family of factory workers.
When my family goes to work at the factory, they become an extension of the machines they work with for 10 or more hours a day. To survive those mind-numbing jobs, they shut the present off, and their brains live in the past and the future while at the factory. When they go home, they cannot flip the switch back. As a child, I learned to avoid the present, and once I understood this in 2005, I realized I needed a new relationship with time. I created (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals to anchor myself in the present, creating what I call an extreme present —meaning I cannot think about anything except what is in front of me.
When I created these rituals in 2005, I had already been writing for thirty years. We must be open to changing everything, and I mean everything, if we need to grow in new ways as artists, even after three decades of creativity. (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals changed my life by helping me see the creative viability in everything around me. In public workshops, I have discovered that the rituals help writers and other artists who have been stuck or unable to create, sometimes for years. Every human being is creative, and we must learn to treat our creativity like vital organs in our bodies. Please see my website for workshops: http://CAConrad.com
I HOPE I’M LOUD
WHEN I’M DEAD
I have a
mannequin for
a paperweight
it is difficult to
type with such a
large paperweight
I reach around
lovers late into
night typing
from behind it is
impossible to
tell which
is Virgil
poetry
can be
of use
the field of flying
bullets the hand
reaches through
loving the aftertaste
finding a deeper
third taste
many are
haunted by
human cruelty through
the centuries
I am haunted by
our actions since
breakfast
you said too much poetry
I said too much war
the biggest mistake for
love is straining
there was a
door marked
MISTAKE we
entered
you said too much fooling around
I said fuck off and die
ONE
I’m going in for
a CAT Scan I
mean an audition
for an opera
will it finally
break into
Two paths
this suffering One is tiresome
every gentle piece
of marble in
the sun was
once beaten
into shape
this doesn’t
work with people
take many deep
breaths maybe
breathing can help
Jesus didn’t
need balance
he had nails
-from ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness
CAConrad works with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual and has been doing so for over 50 years. Their latest poetry collection is First Light (Wave Books / UK Penguin, 2027). They received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a PEN award, and a Creative Capital grant. The Book of Frank is available in a dozen languages, with a forthcoming Korean translation in 2027. They exhibit their poems as sculpture with recent shows in Edinburgh, London, Hamburg, Melbourne, Porto, and Chicago. They teach at Sandberg Art Institute and De Ateliers in Amsterdam, and at Bard College's MFA program. They live in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Please visit them at CAConrad.com
