Not Writing

When I am not writing I am not writing a novel called 1994 about a young

woman in an office park in a provincial town who has a job cutting and

pasting time. I am not writing a novel called Nero about the world's richest

art star in space. I am not writing a book called Kansas City Spleen. I am

not writing a sequel to Kansas City Spleen called Bitch's Maldoror. I am not

writing a book of political philosophy called Questions for Poets. I am not

writing a scandalous memoir. I am not writing a pathetic memoir. I am not

writing a memoir about poetry or love. I am not writing a memoir about

poverty, debt collection, or bankruptcy. I am not writing about family

court. I am not writing a memoir because memoirs are for property owners

and not writing a memoir about prohibitions of memoirs.

When I am not writing a memoir I am also not writing any kind of poetry,

not prose poems contemporary or otherwise, not poems made of frag-

ments, not tightened and compressed poems, not loosened and conversa-

tional poems, not conceptual poems, not virtuosic poems employing many

different types of euphonious devices, not poems with epiphanies and not

poems without, not documentary poems about recent political moments,

not poems heavy with allusions to critical theory and popular song.

I am not writing "Leaving the Atocha Station" by Anne Boyer and certain-

ly not writing "Nadja" by Anne Boyer though would like to write "Debt"

by Anne Boyer though am not writing also "The German Ideology" by

Anne Boyer and not writing a screenplay called "Sparticists."

I am not writing an account of myself more miserable than Rousseau.

I am not writing an account of myself more innocent than Blake.

I am not writing epic poetry although I like what Milton said about lyric

poets drinking wine while epic poets should drink water from a wooden

bowl. I would like to drink wine from a wooden bowl or to drink water

from an emptied bottle of wine.

I am not writing a book about shopping, which is a woman shopping.

I am not writing accounts of dreams, not my own or anyone else's.

I am not writing historical re-enactments of any durational literature.

I am not writing anything that anyone has requested of me or is waiting

on, not a poetics essay or any other sort of essay, not a roundtable re-

sponse, not interview responses, not writing prompts for younger writers,

not my thoughts about critical theory or popular songs.

I am not writing a new constitution for the republic of no history.

I am not writing a will or a medical report.

I am not writing Facebook status updates. I am not writing thank-you

notes or apologies. I am not writing conference papers. I am not writing

book reviews. I am not writing blurbs.

I am not writing about contemporary art. I am not writing accounts of

my travels. I am not writing reviews for The New Inquiry and not writ-

ing pieces for Triple Canopy and not writing anything for Fence. I am not

writing a daily accounting of my reading, activities, and ideas. I am not

writing science fiction novels about the problem of the idea of the au-

tonomy of art and science fiction novels about the problem of a society

with only one law which is consent. I am not writing stories based on

Nathaniel Hawthorne's unwritten story ideas. I am not writing online dat-

ing profiles. I am not writing anonymous communiqués. I am not writing

textbooks.

I am not writing a history of these times or of past times or of any future

times and not even the history of these visions which are with me all day

and all of the night.

Source: Garments Against Women (Ahsahta Press, 2015)

Poetry and Feminism