Issue 8: Bob Perelman
Literally Speaking
Stop me
if you’ve read this before –
but wouldn’t the world be a better place
if we each would just keep
the code on our junk
to a bare minimum?
– and develop
sustainable reading practices, of course
– spare me
eat right
respect finitude
floss – and develop
ways to deal with repetition that don’t involve losing it
whether in the privacy
of the most logical dreams
or universally
And for best results, make it platform-proof
the spread of piety
spare each of us
it’s not a reason
to give up mind reading
Bob Perelman has published 19 books of poems, including: Iflife (NY: Roof Books, 2006); Playing Bodies, in collaboration with painter Francie Shaw (NY: Granary Books, 2004); and Ten to One: Selected Poems (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1999). His critical books are The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary History; The Trouble With Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky. His work can be accessed on Penn Sound and on his website, and a feature on his work appears in Jacket 39. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
