Author Archives
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Someone puts “Saxapahaw” in an e-mail and you have to write a poem
In Saxapahaw before the war Boys and girls were locked in remote cabins for weeks And given only toxic plants and rancid meat to eat A surefire way to identify the weak Those who crawled out – if half-crazed, still… Read More ›
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Writing doesn’t have to involve running away
I read a poem by a young woman About her attachment to female racehorses. I know they come first, she concluded. Something like that. I thought, being a man, I should write About stallions – their muscles? speed? power?… Read More ›
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L’amour intercontinental, universel
for Tory and A.S. Essential it was that she was a foreigner – Misreading, mistaken and thus so much warmer. And as I from her her was equally estranged – Oh we passed such pleasant, such comfortable days! Younger, she… Read More ›
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Life would be easier if people were (et rebelote)
{Le brouillon d’une version en français se trouve ci-dessous} “OK, so maybe this is all I know: he wasn’t normal” She thought there were normal people and that she might not be one of them. If you had asked… Read More ›
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They did this for any number of years
They did this for any number of years. She would tell him, often with tears, She was suffering—at her job, in her Personal life. He would say or try As diplomatically as possible . . . “Were it me, …. Read More ›
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Murder, children and other crimes
The reason that it is important—of the utmost importance—for white people, here, to see the Negroes as people like themselves is that white people will not, otherwise, be able to see themselves as they are. — James Baldwin, “East River,… Read More ›
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You know, we float better in salt water
In the 1980s I heard that a psychotherapist had said to a patient In tears, on the verge of a nervous breakdown – feeling better grounded Would take time; it would be like turning an ocean liner around. I… Read More ›
