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Sy Safransky’s Notebook
December 1994
Table Manners
The full-page ads by big corporations proclaim peace on earth, when all they really want is another piece of the earth.
December 1994May 1994
Perfect Rooms
The language is so much bigger than I am, so much older, more beautiful. How can I hope to tame it, cram it into a style?
May 1994December 1993
Bigger Than Words
Oh Freedom, I knelt at your feet but you said, Not now. So I threw myself at Love. Love said, Is it me you want, or Freedom?
December 1993June 1993
Another Coincidence
Not enough time for the poem. But the poem staggers to its feet, wipes its face on the dirty towel, remembers it lives here too, remembers it needs no invitation.
June 1993February 1993
For the World
The hurricane knocks down everything in its path. We give it a name.
February 1993November 1992
Without A Name For You
Hannah Arendt says a fundamental contradiction of the United States is political freedom coupled with social slavery.
November 1992June 1992
The Map I Was Promised
Things I didn’t get to last week: answering the mail, giving up coffee, saving the planet.
June 1992May 1990
From My Notebook
The day with its big arms around me, whispering in my ear.
May 1990January 1990
Letter By Letter
Words become sentences in spite of themselves, as moments become a life.
January 1990April 1980
Three
He abandoned desire. The flowers grew slowly around the hole in his chest. When his lover sighed, they trembled.
April 1980
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