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n+1

I'm obsessed with n+1. I read the pieces, and I want to talk about them... to spend time with ideas. One of my favorite things to do as an undergraduate (o, idealistic days of yore!) was to sit down to a mediocre dining hall dinner and talk with people about what they had learned or thought about that day... we were always full of ideas. Now, even though I am surrounded by people just as smart, we spend our days thinking about functional things. I should cancel old credit cards I haven't used in awhile. I should call the power company to switch over the bill to my name. I should book a rental car for my trip to California.

I miss the luxurious days filled with thoughts beyond the mundane. Until I can live those again, I'll be a vouyer via n+1.

*This issue, there was an inventory of "American Writing Today." From this, I realized that I am well-versed in short stories, but functionally illiterate in contemporary poetry. So, I have resolved to read more poetry. A start:

SIT-CALM

In the excitement phase
we think we want something
we're made up to seem
exaggeratedly unfit for,
say, touch.

This is the funny part,
but also the dangerous
moment. Right away
we're talked out of it--
no harm done--
by a band of wise-acre friends.

"I don't know
what I'm thinking," we say,
to a spike of merriment.
Here is the warm
human part
which dissipates tension.
-Rae Armantrout

Comments

-kaplan said…
if you like armantrout, check out the reading series over at www.dcpoetry.com. she reads here every two years or so - plus there's a regular line-up of folks along similar lines...

-kaplan
1:46 PM
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