Poorly Grounded Notions

By Keith Waldrop

This article appeared in the December 8, 2008 edition of The Nation.

November 19, 2008

And an inability to comprehend the
flow of time. We need only think of statements
by everybody. I cannot call my-
self myself. Up to this point, the dreamer
is dreaming, but now his dream
begins. Unities of recollection, separate
from one another. Thus in this present
world, there are different injuries.

I never hear them. They come
uninvited. Silver tissue. Garlands
between them. Any activity may produce
music. Aware of their existence as an
awareness of losing their sense of ex-
istence: vague, general, nameless, like
a nothing or the absolute. I am dead. I am
not alive, a music of exceeding shrillness.

May be pleasantly illustrated in the
following way. Light on his head. Felicitous,
contains some fabrication. I am
forced to shout out, trace failure to the stage
when plans are construed. I see a table
before me. I am reminded of another
table. I place table beside table. Separate
worlds. In what sense are we talking?

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About Keith Waldrop

Keith Waldrop (born Emporia, Kansas, 1932) teaches at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and, with Rosmarie Waldrop, is editor of the small press Burning Deck. Recent books include translations of Anne-Marie Albiach and Claude Royet-Journoud. Forthcoming this spring are three titles: Transcendental Studies, a book of poems (University of California Press), Several Gravities, a book of collages (Siglio Press) and a translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen: little poems in prose (Wesleyan University Press). more...
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