To obtain the greatest possible productivity,
I could go to the heart of my deepest
motivations. What Freud accomplished was to
go the the heart of the motivating process itself.
By the turn of the century the world of the
book underwent changes of an unparalled scale.
Freud and Einstein understood that our most
cherished beliefs about time were crumbling. the
scale of our lives, unike those of the Pharoes of
Egypt we becoming nothing more than a few moments, over a
period of a few years. The bitterness and hopelessness,
cynicism and sadism unleashed by the loss of
Eternity made its way into every atom of
human experience. Intellectual conquistadors, both
Freud and Einstein leapt into the world's literary
mind, but Freud had the keener sense of leadership.
On the other hand, the social world of physics
maintained more factions, internationally, being the
older and far more revered profession. With the
ascent of Heisenberg's Priniciple, Einstein's influence
became divided. But Freud's influence grew-
and continues to grow proportionately- with
time. It all boils down to a gift for assessing
reality. Einstein recreated the literary reality
of the material world- Freud achived this in
the mental world. The mind was a new world
What Freud seized on was the values attached
to the world of (literary) science. By a deft
combination of organizational leadership and
writing, he gained the decisive leadership of
the world of psychology- both literary and social.
The world of a book contains many specific
details which are ordered for only literary effect.
In that sense, a fact in the literary composition
is equal to a sound in a musical composition.
These are heard much "faster" when performed.
Literary composition is "performed" by its
reader, exactly in the same way that a musical
composition is performed by a musician.
Reading the poem out loud is equivalent to playing
the instrument out loud.
The audible world is a world alive. Events
"occur" in succession.
Into the vacuum of "no-events" the writer offers
a concentrate of events. My motivation has often been to
reverse this process. The writer, existing as fully in the
time of no-events, will offer writing that offers the
reader access to the collaborative filling-in of events.
Like dreams, these are laconic. A few facts- such as
my dreaming of meeting with Barrett (Watten) and asking him
to say hello to Carla (Harryman). Or asking Toni (Simon)
to please give me a key for her studio. These were
significant events- made more significant by Freudian
My motivation has been partly to stay in the world
of timeless events. But this is a contradiction.
And out of the strain of that contradiction comes poetry
to relieve it. "I think that the river is a strong brown
god" wrote T.S. Eliot, "sullen, intractable."
What is the timetable for timeless events? Pragmatically
speaking, for the poet, ultimately this becomes the
actuality of "finding" the time to write them. The
poem is thus a detective story for finding time.
Now the time is here and there is no poem. But
the poem is the motivation for writing the poem.
The poem becomes an apology for finding the time
(taking the time) to write the poem. The poem
is an exit from narrative time. The poem is
an exit from time.
During this no-time, events change their modality.
A butterfly flickers by. The fan is a focussed
whirlpool of whoosh. Marinetti is marinera.
Lunch is imminent. By degrees, time gradually
creeps to a slowdown. You can hear the few
crickets outside a little, but now that's gone too.
A slight breeze and that's gone. Dare to go on
is dare to stop. The world is a small circle
containing the Roman numerals I through
XII. A list:
plastic garbage bags
diet Pepsi, *dinner*
Buy the end, the trip was not disappointing,
but the excitement is wearing off and everyone
[a few moments and Toni enters saying,
"The hornet is back"]