I recently posted the text of my poem that was censored from KXCI's A Poet's Moment. In place of "Lament of a Double Bass," they did air another poem of mine, which I wanted to share here. I wrote it in response to a prompt given on Robert Lee Brewer's blog, Poetic Asides, which is hosted by Writer's Digest. Come to think of it, this is a love poem, so it's the perfect day to post it. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

So We Decided to Take Over the Block,

I'm interrupting Avatar Week to bring you some news: this week, I became the first poet ever to be censored from KXCI's show A Poet's Moment. Although the show's host, Ron Cipriani, recorded three of my poems and had planned to air the second one for the usual cycle of time slots, someone else at the station decided to pull it after the first airing.

Although I heard that the problematic phrase "blue balled" was cited as the reason for censoring the poem, I rather agree with my friend Kristen, who suggests that the poem's overall sensuality may have triggered the pushback, since our Puritanically rooted culture is uncomfortable with sensuality and eager to make the leap from there to sexuality. The words "blue balled" would be easier to latch onto and complain about than the poem's overall tone. Ron is playing the other poem of mine that he recorded this week, one that I would call a lark, instead of this better poem, written in the voice of my husband's musical instrument, which, I imagined, might be jealous of me. That's right, this is a poem about the relationship between a musical instrument and a musician, and it was too racy for radio. So, without further ado, here is the poem.

Park Bench, a dangerous thing

to lie on [under normal circumstance]

he has shot me in the neck

Yesterday, I recorded three poems for KXCI's A Poet's Moment, hosted by Ron Cipriani. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy recording for radio. One of these poems, posted below, will be played several times this week on KXCI Tucson 91.3 FM. Ron is saving the other two for a rainy day.

If you're out of radio range from KXCI, you can still hear the program through their Web site, which streams the station live.

The following are the dates and times my poem "Willow, Alaska" will play on A Poet's Moment: