reading

Last year I helped put together an exhibition of writing

and art. One of the writers I solicited was Nick Flynn.

I've long admired his work -- poetry, memoir. He wrote

the poem hello, birdy based on the Motherwell print

above. And now that poem is included in his new

collection, The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands.

I'm reading this book now. It's a collision of forms,

voices and images. It has some stuff to show me,

not only in the meanings but in its architecture.

How the book and the work are made and then

assembled.

I like the changes he made in the two versions.

The note card image is my fiddling by writing

his poem.

Here's another poem from the book.

haiku (failed)

The thin thread that hold us here, tethered /or maybe tied, together,

what / do you call it -- telephone? horizon? song? Listen / to yourself

sing, We are all god's children / we are all gods, we walk the earth /

sometimes, two sails inside us sometimes / beating, our bodies the

bottle, a ship inside each / until one day, for no reason, it sails --

hello? / damn phone -- until one day it sails / out of sight, until one

day it cuts out of / earshot, bye-bye muttered into your cupped palm,

bye-bye / boat, bye-bye rain -- Look / maybe this is the place we've been /

waiting for, maybe this place / is the day, inside us, inside each /

corpuscle, the day, that day, everyday is / inside, my body, your body,

everyday is / this thread, everyday you said, come / get me, everyday

you said, it's been way too long / you said, bye-bye, bye-bye, not a day /

went by, the thin, the thread, so thin, this thread, are you still / here,

is it still, your heart, is it well?