The plan was to hit up Point Vincent Lighthouse Starbucks, soak up the ocean view while cranking out a few annotations. But that would have required a computer and several books, and as Amy finished the hour-long drive and pulled into the Starbucks lot, I discovered I'd left my book-bag in my car, parked at her apartment where we'd met that morning. I'd shown up with nothing but a 3/5" notepad with a otter sketched on the cover.
My first thought was locate a copy of the next book on my reading list: The Divine Comedy. As it turns out, Dante isn't sold at most bookstores. After several phone calls failed, I tried Mike's Independent Book Shoppe. In answer to my polite request, Mike replied, "oh, we're fresh out, sold the last one yesterday." Which seemed either unnecessarily sarcastic, or a little bizarre. I gave up.
After five minutes of stewing into my Chai latte, I got over my absentmindedness and gave myself some new homework: "Found Poems" from New York Times articles.
If you're unfamiliar with the process, it's simple: pull any words, in any order, out of a piece (novel, essay, newspaper article). And have fun doing it.
I don't feel like I wrote these, but they do make me laugh. Seriously, try it sometime. It's fun to poeticize headlines.
Jobs Steps Down at Apple, Saying He Can’t Meet Duties
From the near dead to its current, unmatchedfiery and mercurial
passed into legend
whose insistent view
so dominated
his genius
his risk-taking
his tenacity
his own judgement and
perfectionism and gut
Health issues hang
over a decision
Perhaps the greatest ever
every phone call
every time, he's a part
funny how you feel about
a stranger.
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
But I was a lone voice guardingthe secrecy of internal deliberation
hampered by communication
tough interrogation
the suffocation
technique:
relish the criticism.
Long struggle with heart
the eventual invasion.
The epilogue:
A prolonged dream, vivid.
And Italian Villa. He
paces stone paths
for coffee and newspapers.
Around the Corner, Inadvertent Galleries
life has becomepeppered with things
they lie in wait
buoyed by more
anonymous, unsung
especially in summer
a narrow sliver
right in front of you
an encounter of the
conceptual kind
something like enormous
shoes on shelves
traveling among the elements
a greatly magnified glass mosaic
you turn a corner
it happens twice
invert the spacial experience
an immense blow up
of a small portion
the statue of liberty
has a 35-foot waist
nothing amazes
like reality.
New Numbers, and Geography, for Gay Couples
A decade is a long time.Cultural training classes
met by stoney stares.
Social stigma starting
to ease,
attitudes softening,
stand up and be
counted.
So much for San Francisco.
Couples dispersed
farther afield.
Enclaves, safe-havens,
the upstarts on the list:
Pleasant Ridge.
The tip of Cape Cod.
These days he lives openly,
Mr. Hooper smiles impishly,
an island of tolerance
in a sea of outlet malls.
Love these. So much.
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