what will we have seen with 2020 hindsight?
so many things today ire us & tire us
earthquakes, wars, and now the coronavirus
we fear the world will come to a sorry end
recorded only on papyrus
…
Month: March 2020
One should not assume that the silent forbearance of his acquaintance admits-to his rectitude
Nomads on the boulevard
can overhear us
shuffling by our coffee klatsch
we stink to them, too
…
and the first one now will later be last
self-adulation seams to be
the same think
coming, good and hard,
a tiny con-
vulsion followed by
a large re-
pity
for the same
self
…
In Defense of Poetic Nonsense, With a Character Who Shares Your Frustration
If the book sounds maddening, it often is. It seems frustrated with itself: “oh that’s just more words,” Notley writes; “how tedious, this!” The tedium might enhance the really enthralling parts — like reading a religious text, I thought, then read the line, “Let’s call this grey stuff light.” There is joy throughout the book, in Notleyish lines like “Stars look like the word stars, / really do … and sparkle is better as its word.” I love that — an image that’s purely linguistic. But this book also annoys me deeply. …