This coming Wednesday night (1/22) is our next Poetry Ruckus at Ducky Waddle’s (414 N Coast Hwy 101). Our very special guest poet this month will be local troubadour Darius Degher.
Where to begin with the multi-talented Darius? Since graduating cum laud from UCLA and earning an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University in England, Darius has forged a unique artist’s existence and traveled far and wide.
His music career began deep in the 80’s LA paisley psych scene with his band Darius and the Magnets. Don’t miss him shredding a sitar solo at 2:23!
Darius’ recent music is more folk oriented and his albums have earned him San Diego Music Award nominations and even favorable comparisons to Bob Dylan.
Through his flourishing musical career, Darius has also distinguished himself as a poet, publishing works in many magazines and journals in the US and abroad–not to mention founding his own literary magazine for second lanaguage English writers, called Shipwrights. He teaches online courses in creative writing for Malmoe University in Sweden and continues to write.
Dig a sample poem from Darius’ forthcoming collection To See the Sound to be published this February:
Living Will
While filling in his living will
he discovered the will to live again.
For unacceptable qualities of life
he checked the boxes on the form
for chronic coma, feeding tubes,
persistent vegetative state.
For a week he lived his testament:
didn’t sleepwalk through the frozen foods
or ignore the glorious fluorescence.
Quickened by the canteen’s quiche,
he lost track of what a colleague said,
smiled about a project gone awry.
He notched his deepest ever breaths,
exhaled slowly like a yogi,
was dazzled by his prism paperweight.
We are delighted to have Darius as our guest at the Ruckus and look forward to seeing lots of fine local poets ready to read. Doors open at 7 PM, poetry start 7:30 and Darius takes the stage at 9. See Michael if you are interested in reading.
And stay tuned because we’ll be having a book release party for To See the Sound on March 1st!
Ruthless Hippies 