By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept

Jack Gilbert once told me only a fool writes first of love, or directly of love, though first love is often fuel for all writing.

I was going to say, what else compels us to write? Then I thought about constraint.

I think conceptual tactics can be a bit like engaging with a lover. Desire is triangulated by a constraint. Or a withholding. The text can bare the imagination. Engagement girders.

Seeing these images though, I am tempted to push back the weave of ever-encroaching data and, while I still can, claw my way into a cabin for a bit and feel some led on my thumb. Who knows, maybe sit by the fire and doodle.

On the other hand, the above manuscript pages have the urgency of a woman in confinement. As if telling it right is the only possible way through. And of course it is. No need for anything but desire sometimes.