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About Me

Sam Pierstorff is a poet, professor, husband, and dad. He runs a kick-ass poetry slam in Modesto, SLaM on RyE , and a prominent literary small press, QUERCUS REVIEW PRESS . He's the former Poet Laureate of Modesto (2004-2008) and co-organizer of THE ILL LIST , a poetry slam invitational. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from CSU Long Beach, has published more than 125 poems, and he currently teaches at Modesto Junior College, extolling the virtues of poetry, screenwriting, and composition with a primary lens focused on the media's damaging effects on gender identity & the disparate politics of sexuality. He likes balance and avoids cliches in life and in words. Oh yeah, and he has a really hot wife, Ruhi ("soul"), a 3-year-old daughter, Ameena ("faithful"), a 6-year-old son, Hakeem ("wisdom"), and a brand new baby boy, Deen ("faith"). And he thinks you all should buy this POETRY BOOK! ....

NEXT SLAM ON RYE: Wed. June 10th, 2009, featuring Jamie DeWolf! Click below for details.*** Info: SLaM on RyE

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

A lot of dead poets like Bukowski, Frost, Sylvia Plath, Sexton, Walt, Williams, Wallace Stevens, and some contemporaries like Naomi Shihab Nye, Stephen Dunn, Olds, Merwin, Billy, et al. I'd have coffee tomorrow with Chris Rock, Saul Williams, Dave Matthews, or Alanis. I'd like to smack around George Bush, Fox News, and the sad half of our country still navigating through a dark cloud of ignorance.

My Blog

The Barbie Doll Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHbtM9463c
Posted by on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:23:00 GMT

My Son is Too Small (poem)

My Son is Too Smallfor Deen This one, friends say, finally looks like me,skin nearly translucent compared to the almond shellsof our other two...
Posted by on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:10:00 GMT

Dear Men (poem)

Dear Men: Thank you for lighting my cigar on the hilltop at midnight when I was 16 and my first girlfriend dumped me on prom night for the backseat of a football player's Chevy Blazer. An...
Posted by on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:32:00 GMT

It Just Happened (poem)

It Just Happened   If he says it just happened, ask him if her hair unbraided itself if her lips detached from her innocent face and suctioned his tongue like leeches before he had a ch...
Posted by on Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:55:00 GMT

A Star is Born: A Poem in Three Acts

A Star is Born: A Poem in Three Acts by Sam PierstorffDedicated to the 50th Anniversary & Renovation of the Performing & Media Arts Center at Modesto Junior College, August 22, 2008 ...
Posted by on Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:05:00 GMT

Mom to the 3rd Power (poem)

Mom to the 3rd Powerfor my wife, RuhiNow that he understands that there's a tiny child inflating inside the balloon of your belly,I tell our oldest son when he misbehavesthat I have kept the receipt ...
Posted by on Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:59:00 GMT

Make Dua For Me 3 (fiction)

THIRTY-ONE As the three of us watched an L.A. Lakers game on my father's 13" television, Yusef remarked about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's name.  "It's a great thing to read Abdul-Jabbar on a jersey,...
Posted by on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:37:00 GMT

Can You Dig It? Tribute to American Graffiti (poem)

Can You Dig it? A Tribute Poem for American Graffiti by Sam Pierstorff, City of Modesto's Poet Laureate, 2004-2008  If you unearth ...
Posted by on Mon, 26 May 2008 05:45:00 GMT

Make Du’a For Me 2 (fiction)

We were standing at the opening of another giant covered market, Souk El-Hamidiyeh.  The massive iron roof was riddled with ancient bullet holes, and diagonal spears of sunlight pierced the groun...
Posted by on Tue, 20 May 2008 22:58:00 GMT

Make Du’a For Me (fiction)

TWENTY-ONE Yusef and I were getting used to being on our own, walking to the mosque and back and buying sodas at the corner store, but in Syria if you wanted a Pepsi, you asked for a Bebsi because ...
Posted by on Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:44:00 GMT