Things That Make You Go Hmmm....

Trying to figure out what made Kent Johnson interview Ben Lerner for Jacket.

I sent out a few of Lerner's "sonnets" from The Lichtenberg Figures to my PotD list this morning, and while I find the poems mildly of interest, I do not know what in them gave Kent the idea to interview him. There are a few reasons I can come up with, but I want to look more closely at the poems themselves. I'm already open to them because of its formal imposition as a "sonnet series."

Some from Conjunctions.

§

When a longing exceeds its object, a suburb is founded.
Goatsuckers spar in the linden. The redskins are hunted.
When the hunt exceeds its object, the past achieves
pubescence. History pauses
for emphasis. After these poems are published,

money will be no object.
Money will be a gray bird known for mocking other birds.
The stars will be adjusted for inflation
so that the dead can continue living
in the manner to which they've grown accustomed.

When a dream of convenience begins to dream itself,
the neighborhood's last bamboos reel in their roots.
The children make love `execution style,'
then hold each other like moments of silence.



§

My death was first runner-up at the 1996 Kansas State Wrestling
Championships (157 lbs).
My death is the author of The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César
Vallejo.
My death was the first death in my family
to ever graduate from college.
My death graduated from The University of California, Berkeley.

Your death was the 1996 Kansas State Wrestling Champion (157 lbs).
Your death is the author of César Vallejo's Trilce.
Your death was the third death in your family
to deliver a commencement address
at The University of California, Berkeley.

Her death doesn't care about your death's fame or physique.
Her death is the author of Tungsten, César Vallejo's social realist
experiment.
Her death likes to run her hands through what's left of my death's hair.
Her death would like to start a family.



§

The sky narrates snow. I narrate my name in the snow.
Snow piled in paragraphs. Darkling snow. Geno-snow
and pheno-snow. I staple snow to the ground.

In medieval angelology, there are nine orders of snow.
A vindication of snow in the form of snow.
A jealous snow. An omni-snow. Snow immolation.

Do you remember that winter it snowed?
There were bodies everywhere. Obese, carrot-nosed.
A snow of translucent hexagonal signifiers. Meta-snow.

Sand replaced with snow. Snowpaper. A window of snow
opened onto the snow. Snow replaced with sand.
A sandman. Obese, carrot-nosed. Tiny swastikas

of snow. Vallejo's unpublished snow.
Real snow on the stage. Fake blood on the snow.

Will get back to this. To work...

What's Worse?

a.] Monica-gate?
b.] Gannon-gate?
b.] the lack of Plame-gate?
b.] Iraq-gate? You know, spending $200 billion on the invasion of Iraq to imprison Saddam Hussein (a despot who had no weapons of mass destruction, while losing thousands of American and Iraqi lives and handing over the government to Shites?
b.] the lack of Condi-gate? Former NSA who received 52 -- once again, FIFTY TWO -- briefings between January and September 10, 2001 that stated Osama Bin Laden was looking into using airplanes as missiles to strike US targets on US soil. 52. Read it yourself. But the man's got capital...

delivery

I do not know what I'd do if I did not receive real mail.

Today, PIEROGI PRESS, NO. 11, arrived. Eleven was guest edited by Rick Moody and with the chief edit herself Susan Swenson. As one would expect, another great production. Susan and Joe do nothing half way. The issue, dedicated to the spirit that infused Mark Lombardi's work is perfect bound, printed on quality stock, and covered with a screen of Martin Wilner's Making History: July 2004. Looking forward to some time with it.

And, in memory of Francis Crisley, I still receive THE CATHOLIC WORKER. One of its cover strories leads with the following: "On February 3, 2003, long-time Catholic Worker and Plowshares activist Ciaron O'Rielly and four other Catholic activists, Irish citizens Deirdre Clancy and Damien Moran, American Nuin Dunlop and Scotswomankaren Fallon (both of Irish extraction), in a challenge to law, custom and the consciences of the Irish people, breached security at Ireland's Shannon Airpor and did extensive damage to United States Navy transport plane en route to the Persian Gulf. Fully two years later, in an environment in which the fury of the US occupation of Iraq is preceived as little more than a sad fact, they will be tried in Dublin on March 7. The criminal damage charge potentially subjects them to up to ten years in prison. The action, its context and some ramifications are set out in what follows." I can always rely on the Worker for news. Get thee a subscription: Copies are a $.01 a piece. (That's not a typo) Write to 36 East First Street, NY, NY 10003.

Lastly, I did not say why I came back to this. Two reasons: I scanned the archives. I cringed at most of it, but I liked some of it. After thirteen months of googoogaga, I desperately need a place to go.

Canada phone cards India phone cards France phone cards Russia phone cards UK phone cards USA phone cards Bizon phone card Jupiter calling card Mozart calling card Continental calling card

"...your dream was your ticket out..."

While at lunch with some friends last week, I was surprised to hear that both of my lunchmates missed this site. Since last I posted, I have added father and property owner to the list of my accomplishments...if one can call them that.

George is thirteen months old and the three of us will be moving to Broadway between 123rd and LaSalle some time in April. Change never ends.