Kim's List of Ex-Realities

I made a list of all my ex-girlfriends last night, and then this morning I happen across this clip of Kim Addonizio reading her poem "Ex-Boyfriends". I like coincidences; I believe everything is related.  I also like the way I could imagine Kim was on my list, and while it didn't make any difference to my moonlight, it was still pleasant.  What I don’t quite understand is why Kim has so much fame but so little critical attention. Am I just not noticing the attention?  I think it may be that they perceive her charm as simply facade, but I think she's being honest. I think she’s a cool girl (okay, woman) all the way through, and she’s writing what she knows.

But the ending of the poem is wrong – we’re just lonely old heavy trucks lumbering in the dark? Waiting for the Cynical & Drunk exit? ("Last time I saw Kim was Detroit in '68...?") And yet how else should the poem end?

This post is about making yourself something else as a poet.

Dominique Fourcade says some really interesting things in a fairly recent PennSound interview: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Fourcade.php He talks about preparing mentally as a poet and it sounds like he's talking about an athlete in training. His motto: "Be ready but not prepared." He means we should work on having a very broad, almost zen-like awareness of things without any preconceptions in order to be honest as a poet. A glad willingness to accept the truth as it comes. The poet must put herself through "formidable training" to improve all her capacities of perception, to "understand, un-programmatically, how to perform".

A bit impossible perhaps, I don't believe we can ever completely escape our ideologies. But I think every poet would agree we should try.

As I write this post, I find myself re-writing it. You can't deal with the French without getting sucked into that dialectical paradox machine. But I have to draw the line somewhere, so I can actually finish this one thought before it turns into something completely different. (I.e., is truth prescriptive? Is zen-indifference itself a bias? Is the Heracletian fire stable in its burning? Do we stay still as the world flows by?  etc. etc.)

Anyway, this post started as one thing, but somehow two ferrets slipped out of the bag. Has Kim not achieved Dominque's mental state? Is her honesty, as strong as it is, just a chick flick of preconceptions? Kim, I think, just reads too easily for her critics - what's there to critique? The industry of exegesis has nothing to grind. They want more conundrum served up with their sex. And Kim is just writing where she is.

Well, what do I want? Everyone to be a perfect, wise old saint before they write anything? No, I don’t want that.

Here's the link to Kim if the above doesn't work.  Thanks for reading.  Kim, can I be among the thousands who love you?  Can I be the only one?  Can I borrow a few bucks, until I get back on my feet?
http://12thstreetonline.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/kim-addonizio-reading-ex-boyfriends/