What’s the relationship between inside and outside? When is it an entrance? When, an exit? Is it a way in or a way out, an invitation or an escape? When should I be fully immersed in the moment? When should I be at a critical distance? What about the space in-between, beside? So many questions. These poems don’t offer answers as much as more questions and opportunities for reflection.
Version 1
- Threshold/ Maggie Smith (started may 26th)
- Voiceover/ Rita Dove
- The Affliction/ Maria Howe
- All I Can Have is Field Recordings of the Field/ Kristina Martino
- 2 Mississippi/ Steve Healey
a rambling update: June 9
This morning, running in the heat and high dew point, I had trouble reciting my second poem, “Voiceover.” Too long, I thought, for this weather. I need something shorter, snappier, with a more straight forward rhythm. So I decided to change it up and memorize an Emily Dickinson poem. I found “I dwell in possibility” and noticed how it fit with the other two (Threshold and Voiceover) by it’s mention of a door–which can be an exit or an entrance. Then, this afternoon, scrolling through twitter, I found a delightful 1 sentence poem by Anne Sexton that ends with a wonderful mention of a door and I decided that this series should be as much or more about doors as about inside and outside.
The New List
- Threshold/ Maggie Smith (started may 26th)
- Voiceover/ Rita Dove (started june 6th)
- I Dwell in Possibility/ Emily Dickinson (started june 9th)
- I Remember/ Anne Sexton (started june 13th)
- Doors/ Carl Sandburg (started june 15th)
- Praying/ Mary Oliver (started june 16th)
May 27th-June 17th
Entries describing running while reciting door poems.
Superior for Doors, a cento/ Sara Lynne Puotinen
We dwell in possibility–
Any open space may be
a threshold, an arch
of entering and leaving.
We go back
and forth with only
the occasional stubbed toe,
passing through
doorway after doorway after doorway
into thanks.