“I believe poetry is language’s most radical possibilities, possibilities which include prose and what prose is capable of expressing, but with the freeing capability of moving beyond limiting grammatical structures and linguistic norms as needed.”
While the tang of resolution still hangs in the new year air… Poet Rachel Kessler shows us how to let go. She reports: “This poem was written during a Vis-à-Vis Society experiment. The Vis-à-Vis Society is a group of poet-scientists dedicated to the analysis of the everyday.” 59 Goodbyes Goodbye serious Goodbye writing overly serious poems Goodbye taking everything so seriously Goodbye making everything into a joke Goodbye shame Goodbye dog poop in the basement Goodbye talking shit while doing naught Goodbye plot Goodbye pee in the wrong place Goodbye credit card debt Goodbye hip-hurting shoes Goodbye cold feet Goodbye shed dog hair drifting Goodbye drinking wine too quickly Goodbye dehydration Goodbye hoarding thriftstore clothes Goodbye feeling sad about being fat Goodbye fitness fantasy Goodbye falling asleep while driving Goodbye too-tight pants Goodbye taking it personally Goodbye impulse control Goodbye confessionalism Goodbye yelling in the morning Goodbye Romney Goodbye worrying about silences Goodbye explaining Goodbye smiling reflexively Goodbye waking up at 2:00 a.m. Goodbye waking up at 4:00 a.m. Goodbye …
Editor’s note: Our objective is to determine whether the relationship between poetry and science is field-specific, or something. We hypothesize that a sentence will grow best when infected by the same ideas, images and methods that occur within either field. Preliminary results have been published in the Poetri Dish [experiments in verse] section of Poetry Northwest, Spring & Summer 2012 (v7.n1). Here, doctors Ink and Owning of Vis-à-Vis Society offer further findings: — Scientific Method: Am I In Love? Question: Am I in love? Research: I sleep in a bed with another, I have held his breath in my mouth. Hypothesis: If I run away, I will know. Experiment: Fog up the window and see whose name your finger writes. Observation: Made it all the way to Vancouver: wrote one name, smudged it out. Results: It is true, the finger moves. Report: Scientists in their lab coats leap to their feet in applause! +++ Scientific Method: Noir Sestina From a broken phone booth she called our her question, under-eye circles purple as bruises told of …
