My Scrapbook

The Sealey Challenge Day 4

from “Capture” in Fate, Ai's fourth book

“You tricked me,” he gasped
as he poured himself into my glass
and I drank him like grappa
made from grapes
I'd picked with my own hands.

#thesealeychallenge

The Sealey Challenge Day 3

Manhood, a dream, an illusion, I think,
as I lay down the photograph
and stand still in the anemic glow
of the darkroom lights,
my body giving off the formaldehyde smell
of the unknown.

from “The Journalist,” in Sin, Ai’s third book.

#thesealeychallenge

God. The boot heel an inch above your head is mine.
God, say your prayers.

—from Killing Floor, Ai’s second book

For this year’s Sealey challenge, I'm reading the collected volumes on my shelf, starting with Ai’s. I first learned from her about immersing yourself fully in a poem’s voice. Her first book was Cruelty. #sealeychallenge

At the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 21, I had the opportunity to record this video for Sagging Meniscus press. I'm looking forward to reading the book, Wings, by Amir Or, translated from the Hebrew by Seth Michelson:

“[I]n that library I experienced loneliness, real loneliness, but also exquisite artistic loneliness: You’re lonely but also exquisitely happy if it’s snowing outside and you’re working on a novel. There’s nothing more gorgeous than that.”

—Kiran Desai, quoted in Poets & Writers

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #3

You know you are expected to respond,

that rules establish how to choose your words.

Instead, you lead her out beyond the edge

and watch her iron shackles become birds.

Surrender to this failure. Shave your head.

Embrace her like the resurrected dead.