"The sea anemone dreamed of something, filtering the sea water thru its body..."

-Oppen

Circle Shirt

This is my sister's badass shirt.

Some great books arrived lately written by friends. Areas of Fog, by Joseph Massey, and Futuring, by Mike Sikkema. They are lovely so far, and I recommend staring at them a lot. Areas of Fog is about twice as long but Futuring is wider.

Happy Birthday Lily Brown! History of Poetry

For Lily's 28th birthday, I unveil to the public, "The History of Poetry." Return in 2010 for Section One. That's all we have, so we should probably write some more.

THE HISTORY OF POETRY

Preamble

I need to tell you things. I wish I could sleep. I have a blank wall in my room.
This is the history of all poetry—it begins with one blank wall and continues.
Until three walls are blank. Until there is a bank of walls.
And the walls are the minds blank, filled up, in banks.
On display sort of but only as excerpts of the walls, a light fixture
from the John Donne room, Wallace Stevens window, George Herbert dustpan.

Audio of me reading is up at New Lakes Audio (from Catherine Meng's house in Berkeley, March 2008, Rob Schlegel and Brandon Shimoda recording).

I had some trouble getting it to load on a Mac (could be the horsehair in our walls), but it works on the state's trusty HP.

A bit about those poems:
"Your Face": a re-imagining of events in and outside of Lyon dormitory (they always said it was designed by people who built prisons), Pomona College, 1999.

"Examination of Physical Space in the Notebook" takes place on Haddon Road, Oakland, 2007 and thinks back to Bolivia, sloths, 2001, and "the past."

"The Face Transplant" takes place alone (afraid of dogs, whistling to ward off mountain lions) and with Lily Brown on the ridge trail in the Redwood Preserve in the Oakland Hills, October 2006, after I had started my very real job.