we are driven to distraction, cursing contrition contradicting convictions, criss-crossing losses we are fostering affection afflicting ticking time bombs kissing lips, hips, skipping steps to better forget or get what is you & what is not possible, we make possible cross-crossing possibilities, we undo, we untie, we uncover belated lovers’ letters’ rougher bluffing scrubbing clean [...]
poetry
Bruises
She touched ice and was bruised. To watch she must pause, and so what she caught was never the truth — the woman panting, dancing, weeping — it was only the woman who paused. The mirror was always one breath too late to catch the breathing. —Under a Glass Bell by Anaïs Nin, 1944 (Probably [...]
Ciel
I was recently asked to specify my first New Year’s Resolution, which was to “Be more romantic.” I find romantic a difficult word to define; happily, a few lexicographers have done the job for me. Their entries are quite poetic in themselves, I think. Oxford English Dictionary romantic, adj. b. Mus. Characterized by the subordination [...]
“A Story about the Body” by Robert Hass
When I was at CSSSA/Innerspark way back in summer 2005, Julia, our delightful, aging hippie poetry instructor, made us copy down the following poem. I’ve been remembering bits of it lately for no apparent reason and decided to look it up again. So here it is. A Story about the Body The young composer, working [...]
