Monday, January 12, 2015

poem || John Lowther

Don't worry, we'll take care of you.

I guess it just takes longer to go through a metropolitan system.

There's a whole sense of generosity that's strangely missing from much art activity.

Fast and loose.  And small.

One of my cherished personality tics.

Like an old gas station in the desert, it just stays open because that's all it ever did and all it knows how to do.

Why do people have to work?

Lots of chicks came up to touch it and get their pictures made with it.

Most don't want to get in the car, because they think the earth is flat and they might go over the edge.

Go figure. I'm swamped right now.

I think it's key to admit that 1) I am of a fully average intelligence, and 2) I have a highly equivocal stance towards poetry.

Only the words have been changed.

One of the greatest joys in life, along with writing a piece ya think is actually worth a shit, is coming home with a load of books, stack em by the bed, get a cold beer and plow through.

Could've proved everybody wrong.

--

Note on the Text

This poem comes from Correspondences, which is composed of 62 poems assembled while cleaning out personal email ahead of a swift termination date at an old job. It took 11 hours and 46 minutes. I dont know why I timed it. I was thinking about my time there as congealed labor, though I didnt do much of anything for 20 hours a week in my hidden cubicle. All lines are written by correspondents to me (and so foundin a specific sense, perhaps addressedwould be a better term). I normalized the punctuation and capitalization a bit for consistency of a sort. Only one line was taken from any given email. Many poetsprose is poached here, but none of the Atlanta group (where I would read this material as soon as it was written).

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