Elena > Recent Status Updates

“La Vita Nuova”: The illusion of love / is no substitute / for the actual / experience of being a carpenter / which I have never / even considered being.

the records, yes, THIS is characterization that I want

Tara I fear I’m skimming some of this science stuff….. more character please

“I am mainly preoccupied with the world as I experience it, and at times when I would rather be dead the thought that I could never write another poem has so far stopped me. I think this is an ignoble attitude. I would rather die for love, but I haven't.”
ohhhhhh my god

It was founded by me after lunch with LeRoi Jones on August 27, 1959, a day in which I was in love with someone (not Roi, by the way, a blond). I went back to work and wrote a poem for this person. While I was writing it I was realizing that if I wanted to I could use the telephone instead of writing the poem, and so Personism was born. It's a very exciting movement which will undoubtedly have lots of adherents.

oh my god I’ve finished all the poems……. now onto PERSONISM: A MANIFESTO

“(It was he who took me and some other boys to the sea in Wales for a week. I think this was one of the most important and happy weeks I have ever spent. 'Happy' hardly expresses it. I was nearly insane with joy the whole time.)” oh I’m having so much fun with this

Ok Tara I’m liking all this algae and sea stuff so far but I fear I do need some more characterization of everyone to really get into it

what a run in 1962! Now “Lana Turner has collapsed!”

“favorites: going to parties with you, being in corners at parties with you, being in gloomy pubs with you smiling, poking you at parties when you’re ’down,’ coming on like South Pacific with you at them, shrimping with you into the Russian dressing, leaving parties with you alone to go and eat a piece of cloud”

“when we meet we smile in another language” Bill Berkson I am sick

“Biotherm (for Bill Berkson)” you’ll always be famous to me “I’m so so so so so so so so so so happy so happy I make you happy”

hope Bill Berkson knows I think about him every day too

next up is “For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson” and I’m so excited about it that I’m saving it for tomorrow

Oh I’m so into this

“that is odd I think of myself/as a cheerful type who pretends to/be hurt to get a little depth into/things that interest me”

I should’ve read this 5 months ago when I got it from the library. Wow

tearing my hair out abt my thesis but Frank says “but it is good to be several floors up in the dead of night / wondering whether you are any good or not / and the only decision you can make is that you did it” AHHHH

I love how Frank interrupts himself in birthday poems to talk abt whatever he wants. John Button with “Now I have taken down the underwear/I washed last night from the various light fixtures/and can proceed.” Mike Goldberg with a list of dogs he owned as a boy and “YIPPEE! I’m glad I’m alive” it makes me want to weep

the part I’ve copied out from “Thinking of James Dean” is too long to paste here but know that I am floored

I AM THE LEAST DIFFICULT OF MEN. ALL I WANT IS BOUNDLESS LOVE.

“Fingers more breathless than a tongue laid upon the lips / in the hour of sunlight, early morning, before the mist rolls / in from the sea; and out there everything is turbulent and green.” oh I’m yelling out loud

Una recommendation that I can only read at home bc it’s too big to carry around…. I’m intrigued for sure

it’s so exciting to read new Douglas Stuart you could’ve kept me on that plane for another 2 hours with this

I too love John Cale and Paris 1919

I’m kind of like ok boys a little dramatic for 30 pgs in but the line “Paul could only forgive himself for keeping a journal if he told himself he was documenting history” is a really great character line