Shows
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Series of AffirmationsClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And I see like I used my, the photo, one of the photos of me from high school where I'm smiling in the background and it's like I've seen that version of me before. Like he comes out in brief spurts and then he's gone not long after the moment is done where I tried to find some degree of balance between that person and the side of me that has to be a bit more pragmatic and like realistic about the world."
2025-09-0408 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | An Ode To DiscomfortClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Past traumas fuel the present actions and the far fetched idea in my mind a sign that I'm trying to fight. Life isn't meant to be lived with ease. So I wrote that the poem was written on Tuesday morning, but its origins go back to Friday evening. I at least for this month I been going to a tangamalanga at Hudson River Park. It was the second time around as the first time went so well that I kept I would not let that happy moment go."
2025-08-2109 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Phrase To Describe The Year So FarClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And of course all this amidst all the other like difficulties abroad lately, which I struggle to put in the words even though I'm a poet and a writer, it's something I do not like give nearly as much attention to. The last thing I need is everyone up my case that I put out there. I do not have the bandwidth for my peace of mind to get to get ruined easily need the bandwidth to do so."
2025-08-0709 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Disability Pride MonthClick here to reply to @OPWriter "We just need the means and the opportunity to do so. And even though it feels weird to say, like, you have pride in your disability, honestly, I do. Because I wouldn't have gotten my strength or fortitude or my empathy or compassion had I not, like, grown up with all the struggle and difficulty that the years have brought on. So that's. So, yeah, I do feel pride in my disability."
2025-07-2508 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | On The Cusp Of Balmy BreezesClick here to reply to @OPWriter "It was the last full day of a 14 day trip around Greece with the islands of Crete and Santorini on the itinerary as well. Essentially, the day was at leisure, except for those that signed up to join the trip's only optional excursion, the catamaran cruise around the island Santorini. When the trip was initially booked, there was no way I was not gonna leave this trip. This trip off the booking. I didn't even have to give it a second thought."
2025-07-1109 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Catching The FeelsClick here to reply to @OPWriter "As in, there's going to be contacts, emotions, emotions, felt physical and physical contact over the course of the evening. They make it clear as day that everything's given with consent and that you will feel discomfort at various points during the evening. Which I did because I was not used to being. Not used to holding eye gazes or letting someone touch my heart or even the extended hug. Wasn't really used to all that."
2025-07-0309 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | For ErinClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Good. Good evening everybody. Hope everyone's doing well this week. Please excuse any sounds you hear. It's the air conditioner running. It's warm outside. Anyway, for this week's swell, I'm taking you back to 2021 as this poem was written alongside a friend and fellow poet of mine. Her name is Aaron Denzel. Her pen name is El Dan. And I picked this particular poem for this week because she. She will be. She'll be."
2025-06-1305 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Dancing, In The Evening LightClick here to reply to @OPWriter "I can't see her yet I feel her presence. Her voice seductively says, I'm here for you. Putting her hand to my heart. The low and slow strains of a bandolmeon begin. It's a tango for this dance, or so I think. As the groove changes, a quick shift for salsa begins. The temple keeps alternating. My feet keep moving to the beat as the song goes on. She's still in shadow. Her silhouette a mix of previous partners. The song ends."
2025-05-2608 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Poem Asking Exactly What I WantClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Now I'm able to say what I need after missing the words on the first try, even if I don't know how to get any of this. So I had the poem initially written first written as a list of things that I wanted because I did not know the things that I that I needed. But as I recorded the video earlier this evening, I took a look at my initial poem and completely tossed out the words that I had written for it and just spoke from the heart."
2025-05-2306 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Allow Me To Introduce MyselfClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Allow me to introduce myself as the man behind the pen name O for Oswald, P for Perez. Writing from Queens in New York City, I write with my heart on my sleeve, observing the world around me. Everything is fair game. From mundane ways of daily life, adventures across the globe, and the days that have gone by. I may be quiet and reserved, but I am not a silent person. My words are where I speak loudest with an amplified tone of voice."
2025-05-1505 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Without Poetry, Who Am I?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "A question I refuse to contemplate as without words there's only a body here. I have enough trouble as it is expressing myself. It's why I stay quiet, reserved and shy. Responses would come out stammering or crying and would be misunderstood. Without poetry, I don't have a medium. I'm not so great at music, dance or art. Yet the words seem to flow whenever I put them in this person stanza."
2025-05-0107 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The Muse Returns, As a SalseraClick here to reply to @OPWriter "It read, thank you for the dance. K sealed with her lip prints. Who was she? I'll never know. So that Google photo notification took me back to March 29th. That night, I went to the monthly social for the Kukala Dance Company. And at about 11:00 that night, the professional dancers who owned the studio took the stage."
2025-04-1807 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | If This is the last poem I ever write, let it be.Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Because I like the whole being a poet and a writer kind of came by accident in the first place. Like I, it was my English teacher, Ms. Levy, discovered that I, that I had something there. And it. Even though over the years I took various, like, detours direct through blogging, playwriting, poetry. I never really stopped doing so like I like it felt like this was my thing because I didn't really have anything else that I could say point to say."
2025-04-1108 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Chasing EdenClick here to reply to @OPWriter "But I don't really have much else to say regarding this poem. April's coming up, which January took a century to get through. And yet February and March went faster than the blink of an eye. And yet here we are at the end of March, heading into the month of April, a quarter of the way through 2025. April's also national Poetry Writing Month. So I'll be writing a p. Writing a poem a day on my Instagram feed every day through the month of April."
2025-03-2810 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Elmo Asks, "How Is Everyone Doing?"Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Which in and of itself is is a response to and to a message that Elmo's Social that post that was posted on Elmo's various social media feeds in 2024 asking people that same question and the myriad of responses from all over the emotional spectrum that resulted from it. I came across Raquel's poem randomly scrolling through my feed two weeks ago and I was so taken by what I saw that I decided to write my an afterpiece for it. And it goes something like this."
2025-03-0704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | I Met My Younger Self For CoffeeClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Good, Good. Good evening, everybody for this week's. Well, it's a p. It's a. It's an afterpiece. I came across this poem and met my younger self for coffee by the poet Janae Cecilia. And I started seeing multiple after poems in response to the original piece. I was so awestruck by everyone's responses that I could not help but get in on it for myself. So this is my response to the poem, and it goes something like."
2025-02-2005 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Happy Valentine’s Day!Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Meeting you with all the love I can give. Happy Valentine's Day. When it comes to Valentine's Day, it's always kind of been a lovely situation where it's like the loving feelings bring joy, you know, the fact that like involved with anyone to this hate there a little bit of melancholy to the day. But in the end I decide to stick with the loving feeling. There's love triumph over cynicism every single time."
2025-02-1403 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | After The FestaClick here to reply to @OPWriter "I figured after the madness of the four days that have preceded it, I needed something to cheer me up, something to finally get myself out of my room after being in hibernation for most of January. But that night I did not speak to I barely spoke. All I did was eat and drink and make circuits around the various stations, far quiet from when I'm there in the morning on Mondays when it's quieter."
2025-02-0604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #TravelStoryClick here to reply to @OPWriter "As they were playing a match against the local side and their supporter base came with them as in a group of supporters at the door doors at the hotel, chanting, singing, the whole bit that me as a football, football fan have, have dreamed of witnessing in person, but in my travels never got the chance to do so. There was like three types of reactions."
2025-01-2404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Favorite Image of 2024Click here to reply to @OPWriter "It was a fun, it was a fun way to spend part of the first day of our weekender in Rhode Island. And if given the chance to do it again, I definitely would. If we ever end up playing, if we ever end up back in Newport, I do it again to the Sunset Cruise just for comparison's sake. But this was the, this was a fun, this was a fun moment of our trip."
2025-01-1005 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | In 2025’s Earliest DaysClick here to reply to @OPWriter "But I could not let go of this lingering feeling that for all the. For the fact that 2024, yeah, it has it had its own difficulties in the outside world. But by and large, at least from my perspective, it wasn't that bad of a year from Croatia, Newport, getting to see the Rolling Stones live, trying improv, trying pickleball, getting my first. The paperback version of my first book finally into the real world after so long. I had plenty getting the."
2025-01-0304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A favorite photo as a touristClick here to reply to @OPWriter "There's still a lot more that did not get seen over this trip. So who knows, maybe I'll probably back at some point to see the rest of the country and hit the islands too. Again with beauty. With the amount of beauty on offer up and down the country, who wouldn't want to come back? Who wouldn't want to come back to Croatia. I certainly would and probably will at some point. Well, everyone, that's it for this week's swell."
2024-12-1805 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | If someone had to visit one place in the world, they should go to...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "And boy was I, boy was I not disappointed in like, the photos that I've seen do not do Dubrovnik nearly enough justice. How beautiful it is walking through, walking through the old town. Walking, walking through the old town. Walking, walking to the harbor, the Franciscan monastery. The entire, the entire city of Dubrovnik feels like a museum, especially the old town."
2024-12-1306 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | How are you doing?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "It also happens to be the week of my birthday. At least it'll be on on it'll be my birthday on Sunday this week. Always seem whenever the birthday and Thanksgiving coincide, there's always a mix of emotions that run. Run through me. A sense of melancholy knowing that the year has gone by so, so fast that we're about to enter the final month of the Heading into December. It's the final month of the year."
2024-11-2804 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The best coffee/tea I ever had...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Especially like I ended up taking a photo of the, of the table, of course, because I take photos of absolutely everything that I encounter in my travels because memories, for all they are, they fade away relatively quickly and they don't stay around the longer in life you live. That's why one needs photographic evidence of what they do to be able to fondly look back on events and say, yeah, I did that. And every time I have a cup of jasmine green tea."
2024-11-0104 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The Heart of HrvatskaClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And as I put it close to my heart and close my eyes, I do like all the memories from the ten days with her and art and my group of 38 fellow travelers do come back to mind. And I feel the sense of joyous that the memories bring to the point where I even forgot the fact that trip didn't exactly get off to the greatest of starts as I was delayed in arriving in Zagreb."
2024-10-2505 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A funny thing happened last week...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But when you have all the waterfalls around you and you have the surroundings as you did, and the fact that the sun finally came out at the very end, very end of the hike, I felt a sense of accomplishment. And looking back in that particular moment, something that I laugh about now, where it's like, thank God I was able to save my stick and come home with both. Come home with both of them. And at the end of."
2024-10-1404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | I made a spontaneous decision that turned out great when I...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "I was alive during them, but I don't remember them anyway, that this is. That was my spontaneous decision. And it did turn out great in the end because I got to see a place I wouldn't expected to have seen before."
2024-10-0304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The story of an autograph I have...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Because they always walk out a section of seating for all the specific gate one travel tours that come through the area. And I'm like, okay. Like, at least listening to her. Let her, let her. Let her speak. And I figured, okay, it's something that's an unofficial get together with the group. We haven't done a lot of. We've only seen each other, like, on the bus touring and at dinner. So any chance for an official gathering?"
2024-09-2705 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #PhotoStory | Share what led up to the moment in the picture. What were the events or circumstances that brought everyone or everything together?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Good evening, everybody. For this week's swell, the regularly scheduled one at least, I decided to pick a prompt from the photo Story channel. Story channel to share what led up to the events that led up to the photo. I know you guys know you guys can't see it, but in this photo, I'm in Evaporetto, which is a water taxi with ten other people."
2024-09-2004 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Poetic JourneyClick here to reply to @OPWriter "It's something I can physically hold in my hand. I can't thank everyone enough for their support. It means so much to me. But this is only just the first stop in the poetic journey. There will be a follow up coming in the nut in the near future and hopefully within the roughly next year or so. I get the last two parts of this quadrilogy, the four poetic seasons out into the world. But for, but you know, we, there's still time for that."
2024-09-1504 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Sail Away To Narragansett BayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "So after a bit of a hectic entry into Rhode island from, from Manhattan, we managed to take the hour long bus ride from Providence to Middletown, which is outside of Newport. We checked in, put down our stuff, and headed back out. Back into this. Headed back into the city. And not. Not far from Banders Wharf was Newport Classic. Classic cruises cruises pier. And for the next hour and a half, we were sailing along there against it."
2024-09-0605 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A birthday party I will never forget...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But I was out of the wheelchair and using a walker with the cast still on my cast was still on my leg, but I was using a walker instead of a wheelchair. At this point, I don't know. I was a little hesitant to celebrate the birthday that year, partially because I was still recovering from surgery. I was still recovering from surgery. I just wasn't feeling very celebratory."
2024-08-3004 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Impromptu! Time travel with no return...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "To get those spectacular views of Fira, to be able to see the sea from the highest point on the island, to get the sun, to get the sunset. Just walking around the vicinity of the hotel we were staying at. Just having to arrive at the restaurant that I had dinner that night just as the sun went down. And I'm not kidding. Like, the view was so spectacular, I caught the sun just before it disappeared over the horizon entirely. And it."
2024-08-2304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Au Revoir a Paris 2024Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Sunday. While you are enjoying your weekend, it's 02:52 p.m. with the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics about to begin at 03:00. This week's. Well, it was also time for me to do. I wrote it off Friday evening, rather on Friday, early on Friday morning, just taking a look at the last 19 days of competition that's come along in all the moments that goes something like this."
2024-08-1105 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | My experience taking public transportation in a new city...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "I guess it takes a bit longer to figure out which bus you're supposed to go to go to where it stops. Whereas taking the metro. Taking the metro, you have a general idea of where you're gonna end up and how far it'll be to get. To get to your destination. I do like taking public transit in new cities because it's another part of the story of the overall trip that gets told in every train ride."
2024-08-0204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Midsummer’s SundayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "As I'm, as I'm talking for this week, I'm going back to, going back to poetry for this one as this poem I wrote in the hopes of getting to read it on the ring of daisies open mic stage at the New York Poetry festival this afternoon. But the stage is so popular that the book already, book of names already filled up for the mid afternoon session."
2024-07-1504 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #PhotoStory | A photo I took that perfectly represents my city.Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Let me do something I don't usually do. So just before I left the office on Wednesday, I bought a ticket for the circle line Liberty super Express. And it start. It starts. You go under the. Go into the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. You get the view of the skyline from low Manhattan, and the boat slows down enough to do a full roundabout Statue of Liberty."
2024-07-0704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #MemoryLane | A gift that I still cherish...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Late Saturday afternoon, I see my friend Wendy's distinctive rapping on the box and I wondered what it could be. And there was. The silver ornament was in the box. And I kind of had my grinch like moment where my heart grew like three sizes to bit, three sizes big, bigger, just looking at the Christmas gift, because it's one thing to get Christmas cards from people, but even then the laden doesn't really happen as much as it, as much as it used to."
2024-06-2804 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The most unusual job I ever had was when I...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "I, for this one, I was, I was an information clerk, which meant that I would, people come up to the table and I would go through, they would give their id and I would point the check to see their names against the register, to give them their electoral and assembly districts and occasionally, since it was a spanish population, our neighborhood."
2024-06-1904 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | #LOL | I'll never do THAT again!Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Good evening, everybody. For this week's well, I went to the Lol category to answer the question, I'll never do that again. In my case, I'll never hold a wine glass again without knowing where. Like being aware of my surroundings. Why? Why do you? Why? You might wonder? So we have to go back to September 2018. It was the first day of my ten day trip to Portugal, and it was that evening."
2024-06-1304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The furthest I have been from my home was when I went here...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "So far, that answer, an answer belongs to Greece, as it was when I took the trip last end of last September, heading into early to the first week of October last year, for the fact that it was the farthest I've been. It was only, it was less than ten, less than 10 hours in the air, because it was a direct flight from New York to Athens and back."
2024-06-0704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #SelfLove | Proud of Myself For Doing This!Click here to reply to @OPWriter "I mean, granted, like, after learning the basic shots and the rules of the game, the 15 of us in the group had a mini tournament. My serve was wayward at best, and so was my speed. I could sometimes I could barely, like, train the return serve. I wasn't so great at it either, but I at least did the best I could knowing that it was a sociable. It's a social group. There's not so much a competition involved."
2024-05-3005 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #TheLastTime | The last time I felt a childlike sense of wonder was...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "After years of having to navigate difficult, uneven terrain, I figured, okay, if I get this hiking sticks in my bag, they'll be able to help me, be able to help me move around the site. And you have no idea how truth, truthful that would ultimately prove to be. As at nine in the morning, there were a lot of people there and it was already hot. Like it was, was hot."
2024-05-2404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #PhotoStory | A selfie in an unusual location...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But then along the way, I came along, came along one from my Ireland trip in October 2017. It was the very last day of the last full day of the trip, October 14, 2017. The day started out from. We were staying in, our group was staying in Shannon. Our first stop was Eclipso Moore. Thing was the weather that that day was dreadful. Cloudy, heavy rain and wind to the point where when you actually reach the cliffs themselves, you could not."
2024-05-1705 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | My relationship with social media...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Enough willpower or connection enough friends wise to completely separate myself from social media entirely. That's like falling off the face of the earth and no one tantamount and no one knowing who you are. It's not all bad like social media, though. Here's a platform where I'm able to get my words out, get my poems, get my spoken word pieces out into the world. It becomes a conduit for meeting so many, so many wonderful people over the years."
2024-05-1004 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The last time I cried over something that now seems trivial...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "And it felt so serene to be away from the hustle and bustle of New York City and just get away from everything, get away from. Get away from all the health difficulties that both parents are facing. Get away from."
2024-05-0304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Two Seasons In One MomentClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And it felt like the perfect for first poem to read for the afternoon. I want to thank Melissa Sussons and Brie Bailey for organizing this open mic, because every poet that read that was in awe of their writing and people were in awe of the words that I brought into the world as this seemed less heavy in comparison."
2024-04-2604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | #PhotoStory | A picture from a recent trip...Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But from the moment the bus pulled up, it was hard not to hear John Williams Olympic fanfare going, going off in my head as I stepped off the bus with my camera and tell, because there's no way I was not gonna be in this area and capture the, the origins of the modern Olympic movement. It was. It was quite a surreal scene, the quite a surreal scene to behold. Well, everyone, that's it for this week's."
2024-04-1904 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | A close call that made me appreciate life even more…Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But I'll be damned if it didn't scare the daylight out of me that after all this time, the fact that the Paris and London trip was a major moment of serendipity by itself. And there was no way this was not gonna end. This was not gonna be how the story ended. There was one other close call. The following night we read a wine tasting. I had a bit too much a of too much wine and not enough food in my stomach."
2024-04-1205 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | An Instagram Poet’s Guide To FlirtingClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Or even more awkwardly, do we even like girls at all? But yet, despite the whole heavy handedness of. The heavy handedness of the rest of the world's approach to relationships, the guy still hold out hope that at some point I'll be able to overcome all my. All my quirks and oddities. To be able to feel love from someone else at least once in my life. Because I know love, that nothing lasts forever. Not even."
2024-04-0404 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | Cerebral Palsy Awareness DayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "I've been able to write, have my own poetry book, been writing, been have written chapters and multi author books. I've traveled through Europe in recent years on my own. I managed to get on my own 2ft every morning and get and work like the rest of the world does. And granted, I'm still a bit of a late bloomer, where a lot of the adult level skills that most would have at my age haven't happened yet, but I can learn them."
2024-03-2406 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | Awakening, ReduxClick here to reply to @OPWriter "With 20 seconds of courage and the delay, I spoke. I didn't expect to come out of the column tears. Out came the new mantra, words are art. I still hold those words so dear. This was my moment of glory. So back in March 2020, it was nine weeks in the author and podcaster Kathy Heller's business course made to do this. We started in January, but we were getting towards last stretch of the program."
2024-03-2205 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | We’ll All Float On…OkayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Nothing's in the way, not my clothes, not the outside world's loud noises, nor the inner turmoil of a weary soul. All I see are blue stars in darkness. A weird feeling exists. As I lie back, I'm being supported and held by the water's loving embrace. I don't feel trapped by my thoughts, nor claustrophobic in the tight space. Feel my body in full scars, the pawns in every inch. There's no judgments here, just bliss."
2024-03-1404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Find Yourself A Wine That Pairs With My PulseClick here to reply to @OPWriter "A fizzy concoction that goes down smooth, waiting to come alive after it's uncorked. Wine that embodies summery vibes to be consumed with full company nearby. An aroma fragile at night with hints of lavender on the nose and taste of vanilla at the start. Sense to me, bringing on all the joy. A wine that pairs well with my pulse. Sparklers, vinhos, cedra and chacoli give me all of the bubbles you can get. So, yes, I had this thinking."
2024-03-0704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | An Ode To Leap DayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "You. Good evening, everybody. For this week's swell, I'm gonna. I'm bringing up a day that only comes up once, roughly once every four years, as tomorrow, February 29, is leap day. Now, I say roughly every four years because not every year that's divisible by four ends in the leap year, but at least this year in 2028 anyway, due."
2024-02-2904 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | What’s Going Well?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "And there's the whole notion of the various health difficulties that have popped up around the house in the last few months, combined with the notion that my family won't always be family won't be around forever, and the fact that I take a half hearted approach to living my life too."
2024-02-2204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | What Do I Like About Myself?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Whereas when it comes to me, it's something that I hesitate frequently to do. And I probably answered the question over the course of the poem, only to draw the bling again when I come out and say, what do I like about myself? That sense of self love, compassion. Self compassion is something that I struggle with and something I try to am trying to work on."
2024-02-1604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The World According To Oswald in 2024Click here to reply to @OPWriter "It's a bit more concrete than just merely thinking it or trying to say it. Maybe at some point I want to see if I can get, maybe turn it into a physical piece of artwork at some point. But for now, it's actually in a more physical medium than it has been in quite a while. Well, that's it for this week's swell. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their week and a wonderful weekend, and we'll talk again next week."
2024-02-0805 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Return To SantioriniClick here to reply to @OPWriter "But even then, every time I travel, I get really emotional when it's time to leave the destination. That's what travel does to me. That's it for this week's swell. Good night, everybody."
2024-02-0205 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | If I Could Make One Wish Come TrueClick here to reply to @OPWriter "But I feel like it's in enough shape now that I could at least try to get back to normal. With that out of the way, it's time for this week's poem. The piece is based off a prompt by the poet I came across, her January prompts searching through instagram, and the line if I can make one wish come true resonated with me enough to give it a go."
2024-01-2605 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | People Will Always Need PeopleClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Something that I hold dear that this poem illustrates. And it felt so right to be the piece that leads into the holiday season. I just wanted to share it. And with that, this is my last swell for this year. Next week I'll be taking a bit of a breather. This is the last week of the year rolls on and I'll be back in January. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. And that this last week of the year is a calm and peaceful one."
2023-12-2204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | UncorkedClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And after I said yes, I held the cork in my hands, and wouldn't you know it, a moment of inspiration followed, and it goes something like this, the story of the wine cork. As they see the winery named Titakis, after the bottle's been uncorked, they have a flashback to a sunnier day on the other side of the Atlantic, under the breezy blue skies of Crete, all 32 of us sharing tables, each glass held for one specific wine."
2023-12-1505 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The Inner SaboteurClick here to reply to @OPWriter "The writing residency for 2024 was accepted, only to freak out and kick the can down the road to 2025. Unfortunately, I found out that they were trying to reach me on the day that I was trying to come home from Greece, and thanks to not responding, my residency spot was opened up to other writers. So just feeling really lousy about myself and my lack of decision, which led to the rest of this piece. It's my inner critic, inner sepitur, in full effect."
2023-12-0804 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | 38 Years OldClick here to reply to @OPWriter "It's weird that normally I'm the quiet reserve type, but this is one day of the year where I let myself feel all the gratitude, all the joy and all the emotions that come with it and not feel it and not feel any hint of shame or embarrassment. In doing so, I know I should be feeling more of the positive emotions more often than I do, and that's where my focus for this year of life and the new year to come will lie."
2023-12-0204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Happy Thanksgiving!Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Good morning, everyone. Happy thanks. Happy Thanksgiving. For those that it's not Thanksgiving Day, I hope you're having a wonderful Thursday. And if you're in the Asia Pacific region of the world, happy Friday. So this so this piece, I thought about some of the things that I was thankful for. It's by no means an exhaustive list because it would have taken more than I would have pushed it close to, if not past the ten slides, instagram allows for a post."
2023-11-2304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | I Close My Eyes & Dream of Summer.Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Good evening, everybody. Hope all of you are having a wonderful week so far for this week's swell. It's my contribution to the first Line Poets project on Instagram, which Emigane Barlow runs. My partner for this month is the Instagram user Shereen opwriter, and she provided me the first line for this poem. And it goes something like this."
2023-11-1704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | An Ode To Going PlacesClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And just reflecting back on the entire experience from the writing prompts, that led me to think of that first trip to Spain, all the zoom calls with our authors, like just getting the writing process home down the edits that at times made me question how good of a writer I really am. Because it seemed like I could not get the message that I was trying to say within the word limits, that within the word limits for each chapter."
2023-11-0705 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | In Search Of The MasterplanClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Honestly, I could do a lot better with the words that I come up with than I do. But I I just the words that you see them. That's how it comes out. I fear if I mess with it too much, I'm going to end up messing with the poetry and it's not going to be me strip away the authenticity. I just needed to remind myself that it's okay to be imperfect."
2023-11-0204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | When Did The Good Times Become Memories?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "But the thing is, the trip doesn't die just because you're back on home soil. One has the photos, one has the video taken, one has the connections that made during the trip to still hold on to that, to still hold on to that high vibration that you encountered during those 14 days. And of course, the common knowledge goes there's always room to book the next trip."
2023-10-2604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Incantations For The Next TripClick here to reply to @OPWriter "As most of the 32 people are in their group traveled with relatives or loved ones. But I just wanted to revel in the fact that I had a hell of a time on this trip and I was in no way ready to move on from it. Sure, like in due time, probably at the start of the new year, I will have probably made up my mind as to where to go next."
2023-10-2004 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Under The Cretan MoonClick here to reply to @OPWriter "After I initially wrote the Post on Friday for Meteora, she sensed that the poem was coming on when I wrote out the first line, and turns out she was right. But I was struggling to get the poem going. That wasn't until Sunday night, when all 32 of us, plus a pair of college students and a pair of professional dancers all got on the bus to head to a taverna outside of the city of Heraclion for dinner."
2023-10-1304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Sun Setting on GreeceClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And I probably would have gone up to try Greek dancing twice, even though I know for a fact that I kind of flubbed the choreography a few times during the steps. I didn't see myself doing any of that with this trip began, let alone being open with 30, 32 people that I didn't know until we all gathered gathered in Athens the night of September 24. But we made it through the trip, various body aches and all."
2023-10-0505 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Summer Says GoodbyeClick here to reply to @OPWriter "This on top of the fact that I did do things over the last three months. But as I look ahead to summer closes and fall begins, I will be crossing the Atlantic for the next two weeks. It. So I will be taking a bit of a pause from poetry for the next few weeks and I will talk to all of you again the week of October 9. But for now, hope all of you have a good night and have a wonderful rest of your week. Bye."
2023-09-2204 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Where Do We Go When We Close Our Eyes?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "It's that sense of peace that's why Nice has popped up so frequently in my writings and my poems. That sense of calm that the day brought lingers. Even almost four years later, it still lingers in my mind even when I even when I wasn't even though I wasn't really thinking of it as the place to write about in this piece. Just up to mind when I thought of the question."
2023-09-1505 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | I’m Not Gonna LieClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Good evening everybody. Hope all of you are enjoying your week so far for this week's, well, it's based on a prompt by the poet Lois Rose Sterling. It's a coming clean poem and it goes something like this I'm not going to lie, I beat myself up with them violence and in public over what, you might wonder where do we begin? From being unable to attach earbuds to clicking lockbox instead of check."
2023-09-0704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Parlez Vous Francais?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "As time passes, I walk until I see a group of people up ahead. Oswald, there you are. They exclaim and I say to them j max guzes instead of as I get on the bus, I wonder silently comon AJ pupali Sibian francis pendan breath install. So yes, this poem came across. I just read it. I alternated verse, English and French for this particular version of the poem. The same goes for the video versions of it that I'm going to post tomorrow."
2023-08-3107 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Music For Another EraClick here to reply to @OPWriter "As I had a pension for buying tickets without thinking about the day of the immediate response is gratification. Is it jumping through the hoops fees? The frantic presale rush at 10:00 A.m. To buy and possibly coming up empty? Is it keeping the positive energy going from working day to night? I can barely keep my eyes open past 03:00. P.m. Has my idea for what joy is changed and began to fall into the same patterns over the course of the year of holidays, concerts and travels?"
2023-08-2404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Ozzie’s Got GroovesClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Shalina decided to host a poetry and movement challenge called Body Language for the month of August 31 days of prompts that incorporate poetry and or movement. This poem is inspired by prompt number two to create a playlist of songs that make you move. I relished the opportunity to make the playlist and I opened my spotify account. To me, groove is not just simply something you can dance to. If it has a killer bass line, killer drum build, killer guitar riff, that also counts as groove to me."
2023-08-1704 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Changing The BedClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Though the body aches and sleepless nights must go, it's a sign of moving forward in life, small as it may seem. So yeah, this poem, I wrote it on the way to Governor's Island for the poetry Festival. But the issue of my bed was still on my mind, as in the midst of about a week or so earlier, we lifted the mattress up to vacuum underneath the bed frame."
2023-08-1104 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Dublin in A RainstormClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And this one, Dublin and The Rainstorm from her song from Sinead's song Troy sparked my imagination and brought me back to October 2017, when they visited the Emerald Isle. And the poem goes something like this dublin in the rainstorm the wonders of the city. I remember Christchurch outside the window st. Patrick's lush greens, the turning point of Irish history."
2023-08-0305 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | I Tell You To Get Carried Away With Love…Click here to reply to @OPWriter "It'll always be worth putting yourself out into the world no matter what form it ends up no matter what form it ends up choosing or whatever form you choose to do it choose to do it in it's the greatest feeling and this is a poem that I write. It's a message of love going out to everyone who can hear this and I hope you find something that brings you love, comfort and joy in this world."
2023-07-2703 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | One Small Step For Man…Click here to reply to @OPWriter "You. Good evening, everybody, for this week's. Well, it's a poem. It's a poem that I came up with this morning, actually. But the circumstance behind the piece is a moment of more historical significance. And the poem goes something like this one small step man from man, one giant leap from mankind. Neil Armstrong's famous words, looking back at the Earth from the surface of the moon. 20th July, 1969 ad."
2023-07-2004 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | A Poem In The DarkClick here to reply to @OPWriter "There's no joy or worry yet as my devices are turned off. In the darkness, the day has begun all before everyone else awakes. Who else awakens? So, yes, this poem was a prompt from the poet Ceremony to write a poem based on the reflective qualities of darkness and stillness."
2023-07-1304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | At Age 35…Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Be able to be able to write me first full book. Be at the age, continually exploring the world. Be at things age ID at least one relationship with another person. Be at the age, knowing where my life is heading. So, yes, this poem was written in a stream of conscious fashion. Thinking about thinking about the four different prompts within the larger prompts and just writing just writing what came to mind when I thought of each section."
2023-07-0604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | At The Halfway Point of 2023Click here to reply to @OPWriter "We just started the project today with the first call and my chapter, at least based on what I have, it's going to be based on the origins of how I became a solo traveler. So that's coming down the line. So is the poetry festival for the New York Poetry Society at the end of July, and of course, the travels to Greece and the weekend. Wendy's help my friend Wendy's in Massachusetts. Both end of September."
2023-06-3005 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A "Runaway" DayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Usually by the time I can only get the hour for lunch and then at a time 05:00 hits, I am not in the mood to do anything at all but just get on the subway and go home and crash when I arrive home. So it's that sense of explore, that sense of exploration that's been missing is what guides this particular guides this particular poem."
2023-06-2304 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | What Is My North Star?Click here to reply to @OPWriter "Star is shining so bright, I can see it with my naked eye. Wait a second. I've realized something right now. Something I've known but was reluctant to accept. The North Star is me. I wrote this poem for my friend Aaron Denz Vicus's open mic night on June 1. But due to circumstances outside of my control, I was not able to read the poem on the call that night. But I knew why I couldn't let it go."
2023-06-1604 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | WeightlessClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Good afternoon for this week's. Well, it's a it's an out of body experience. Two weeks earlier, I came across the track weightless by Marcone Union. And in the article that I found on my Instagram feed, it mentioned that this was the most calming song on earth. I was a little bit skeptical of that claim, so naturally I went to YouTube and searched for the track."
2023-06-0404 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | Dancing In A Lavender HazeClick here to reply to @OPWriter "So, yes, this piece this was one of the poems that was listed on Emma Jane prompt list for the month of May. And as I kept looking through the list, I was trying to find the one that caught my attention enough to take a crack at writing. And dancing in the lavender haze felt like the right piece to write about. But the next problem was, how was I going to approach this?"
2023-05-1803 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | As The Sun Shines…Click here to reply to @OPWriter "So yes, this poem came about last Saturday, late last Saturday morning, early in the afternoon, after a week where I couldn't stop berating myself for the mistakes I made at work during the week and for my lack of action steps towards any of my goals in life. The fact that I couldn't even there wasn't even motivation to get out of my room on top of all that."
2023-05-1204 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | The Cocoon PhaseClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Given time, I will emerge from the cocoon to fly high in the sky. So yet this poem was written on March 30 with a bit of an assist from the holistic psychologist Dr. Nicole Apparel. I came across a post of hers that afternoon where she mentioned the cocoon phase, and that was just it. I kept coming back to that post all Sunday afternoon, and I decided, okay, this sounds like something that I could potentially turn into a poem."
2023-05-0504 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | A State of OswaldClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Ahead. Good evening, everybody, for this week's well, we are looking back on the first three months of 2023. This poem was inspired, but by the fifth prompt on the poet Ginger Isla's 100 Days of poetry. Prompts prompt number five was to create a State of the Union address for 2023. In my case, it's a state of me for the first quarter of the year. And it goes like this state of Oswald address."
2023-03-3104 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | Cerebral Palsy Awareness DayClick here to reply to @OPWriter "It just takes more determination, time and effort to get things done. But I do get them done. So yesterday morning, I opened up my manuscript copy of a poetic journey and came across the poem CP. And the last line that I wrote, which is the first line in this poem, got me started on this second on the second poem. On the second poem. Sort of a sequel to CP. But the message of the poems are still the same."
2023-03-2504 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | AwakeningClick here to reply to @OPWriter "I wanted to run away from the moment because I figured I had nothing to show for my efforts. But the universe would not let this opportunity slip by. And as Kathy and I talked, she helped me hit on the fact that the words that I opwriter are the art by itself. A mantra which I take on to this day. And a mantra that first revealed itself in the following poem."
2023-03-2304 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Blessing From Me, To YouClick here to reply to @OPWriter "To start rating this piece as that nine day trip back in 2017 left such a mark on me, how beautiful the country was, how amazing the people that I traveled with were. And the people that I came across in Ireland were as well."
2023-03-1804 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | A Parisien Romantic InterludeClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Good evening, everyone, for this week's swell. The poem that I'm about to read was written during a poetry workshop held on March 5 with the poetess Olivia Bella. This piece was written in the 15 minutes burst and you use the following words summer, midnight and stars, and an image of a balcony to spur on the imagination."
2023-03-1404 min
Oswald Perez@OPWriter | The prophecy told you thisClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Isola de Soleil is on the cards based on the fact that during the Italy trip I did not get to visit Cafri because the waves at sea were too rough and our group instead visited the Naples. But late in the day, I could see Capri from my eyesight and I just imagined myself there."
2023-03-1003 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | Addicted To The InternetClick here to reply to @OPWriter "Whether it be on the subway in the morning, in the evening searching for the transit wireless through the settings on my ipod, taking peeks at the Internet in between, on mini breaks and at lunch, at work or even going so far as to buy airplane WiFi and using the airport WiFi, particularly at the end of the trips that I take to write out my post. So that way I at least have it in draft form prior to the plane landing."
2023-03-0304 minOswald Perez@OPWriter | OP Writer’s WelcomeClick here to reply to @OPWriter "And that's the type of detail, that sense of bringing you in with me on the process, as well as the poem itself that I hope to bring to you each time I broadcast these swells. That's it for this, my very first one. Here's hoping that many more of these swells will come. All of you have a wonderful evening and rest of your week is an amazing one too. Good night, everybody."
2023-02-2805 min