Sunday, August 1, 2010

I think my poem-talk for the Avant Poetry Symposium at Ohio State University later this month is essentially written, not to say that I won't be tinkering with it up to the last minute.

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Both of my parents have had some serious health issues lately. Mom recently had surgery for a brain aneurysm. Dad's undergoing cancer treatments. Barb and I both have autoimmune diseases and have been talking about wills, living wills, insurance, and retirement possibilities/impossibilities.

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Do you ever feel ghostwritten or like a palimpsex?

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I've never felt comfortable in my body but I've always felt that my body is a site of possibilities. Paradox is fundamental to creative thought. Pair of ducks? Don't be ridiculous.

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4 comments:

  1. Tom, sorry to hear about these health difficulties, and prayers come your way from here.
    I look forward to your talk at the Avant Symposium. You're ahead of ME in having your piece essentially written. Mine is growing in my psyche :) soon to be transported to paper.
    SEE YOU SOON :)

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  2. Thanks, Sheila. Can't wait to see you in Columbus.

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  3. "Do you ever feel ghostwritten or like a palimpsex?" Less like a palimpsex, in that my "test"/life doesn't feel all that layered, but certainly ghostwritten, in the sense that if someone's driving this car it ain't me; I can't even find the wheel, or whether there is one. Also ghostwritten in the sense of the line in the old sone, "in another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked from your mother's face" ...

    Re: health: this mortality thing's a trip and a half, as an old workmate used to say. Neither of us ever knew whether a trip and a half was a *good* thing ... depended on the day ...

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  4. I meant "text", Tom. "Test" is too confusing ...

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