Maddenation
Writing Everything
I’m revising the critical introduction to my dissertation, so I’m looking up stuff on Robert Shields, the guy Dad told me about who wrote a diary accounting for every five minutes of his life. I could write a ton on that, but instead, here’s a poem I found that deals with the same idea.
Writing Everything
by Gary Fincke
In the next county, the woman
Who can’t stop writing, her story
On television, followed by
The news of history’s cases,
Words, then sentences, paragraphs,
Pages and pages and pages.
For privacy, she says, she built
A room. For storing her notebooks
Like William Harvey, who dug
Secret spaces under his house
In which to think, discovering,
Meanwhile, the functions of the heart
And the circulation of blood.
There, in those caves, when Harvey wrote,
He spelled pig with three gs, tripled
The last letters of hearttt and blooddd,
Shorthand for his nonstop writing,
Holding his breath with his pen hand
To hear better, perhaps, his heart.
The woman who claims she’s writing
The serial book of her life
Brings a book to the camera.
Months, she says, it’s taken, to work
A week into the long story
Of the difficult act of art.
“Look here,” she murmurs, opening
The volume, and the reporter
Softly reads: “I began to write.
I kept writing. The light changes.
I write. I write. I write. I write,”
Sounding out a pulse, the words
Swirling, then reswirling, like blood.
Comments
Gary Fincke • 05/06/04 • 2:27 PM:It’s always interesting to see something of mine being read and “used”and I’m glad to hear Robert Shields is getting some more recognition for his hamster-on-the-wheel run at keeping up with his recorded life
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
Please capitalize your name properly and use the same information each time you comment. We will not send you spam, and your email address will not be posted.