this was no missed connection

The New York Times occasionally runs love poems inspired by the Criagslist Missed Connections section.
As Alan Feuer puts it, "They are the perfect raw material for making poems: rich in detail, impromptu in emotion, id-like in their openness and often expressed in a highly poignant, idiosyncratic style. All we need to do is add line and stanza breaks; the titles are the subject headings."

This past week they wrote about some of the other artist-types (standup comedians, playwrights, documentary filmmakers, etc.) who have used the ads for creative fodder. They profiled the Festival at Ars Nova and featured pics of two of the three plays I directed: Submit Party (from the Couple Having Sex Everywhere) by Kristoffer Diaz and Doritos Boy by Tasha Gordon-Solmon. I guess the scarf-juggling and sword-dancing in Steven Levenson's Pharmacy in Brooklyn were just a bit too action-paced for the photographer to capture.

The show went phenomenally well, especially considering each director only had six hours total to rehearse each 8-minute play. I am very grateful to my actors: Aya Cash, Sue Jean Kim, Deirdre Madigan, Arian Moayed, Keith Nobbs, Michael Warner and Susan Kelechi Watson, for their patience and ingenuity. The creative team of Emily Rebholz (costumes), Zane Birdwell (sound), Josh Kohler (propmaster, set magician), and Dickie DiBella (projection design) were phenomenal. Justin Levine, Ben and Ian provided super-fun, crowd-pleasing live music.

The NYTimes article is here.

Two of the poems (composed verbatim from ads, with only line and stanza breaks added) are pasted below.

Girl in Green Dress with group of friends
It’s around 1 am Sunday night
(Monday AM) —
you and your friends

had just dashed across the street
(42nd I think) — all in dresses.

You were all smiling and laughing.
I was on the phone,
white v-neck tshirt and jeans,
and your smiled carried over to me
as we passed and caught eyes.

You are stunning.
I regret not hanging up
the phone immediately

and fumbling
into a conversation
about green dresses.


People we need to get the words
People we need to get the words out of mouths
when we make eye contact
with a stranger on the street
we think is cute.

I’m so guilty of this. Like today
on Ave B and E3rd,
totally could at least said “hi”
to the cute boy that was smiling at me.

“Blink” and he’s gone.
Now I’m like every other moron
in this stupid miss connections section
of CL trying to bring back that moment.

Next time I’m opening my mouth,
because this just makes me
feel desperate.