Albert Goldbarth Quote

"Is it going to be important to poetry in the future?  It will be important to everything in the future.  Your grandchildren will wake up in the morning to the sound of the computer screen, the computer screen will lead them into their breakfast, will lead them into and become the entirety of their jobs where they will sit facing that screen that has the approval of the government and of the advertising industry behind it.  They will be there for their 8-hour day--their personal lives, their sex lives, their parental lives will all occur on and through that screen.  They will come home, they will watch that screen for government and advertising-world-approved entertainment, they will fall asleep again.  Will that computer be important to poetry and art in general? Oh yes--But it won't be my poetry.  It won't be anything that i care about and i imagine i won't be here to see the full fruition of that vision." --Albert Goldbarth

Untitled I

"This world...  Goddamn this world," he thought, his hands locked, thumbs pressing against his eyes.  "If i was on the other side, i might not think this."

Bored, he lit up the runt of a smoke he'd just moments ago stamped into extinguish.  It wouldn't do him any good.  But he was trying to thwart something--change, probably, he thought.  "The devil is laughing at me."

It was a week ago, but the notion still burned.  Some professional linguist, Steve's tart, had stated flatly that poetry was, "Just words".  He thought of his life, his efforts.  Surely, she was full of shit.  Surely words had a terrific power; some shattered lives could suture, some steady could come unhinged.

Or more! he surmised.  Think, think, think, think, think.... He said to himself as he rapped his forehead with his knuckles.  The room began to spin.  He could feel the thick darkness gyrating around him.  He was sinking.  He needed something; help, another smoke, some sleep.  He tried but he could not think.

willy-nilly

Profundity is one of those willy-nilly things. There's no use tending to it--that is unnatural. The way profundity works is it slips in among the mundanity of everyday existence. As i recall writing down some time ago in another notebook, poetry is practicality plus poignancy. In other words, it is a measured estimation of reality