visits from the master
sometimes, as i think geminipoet said about Martín Espada visiting Acentos last year, you must lay down your pretensions and submit to the knowledge that there are indeed masters of what we do, and that we are not always among them. tonight was a very special Cantab feature by Patricia Smith.
oh my god, y'all, she's writing a book about Katrina. in which the overarching metaphor is of the storm as a very sassy woman. other storms of that season are the siblings that don't talk to her. other storms that've done great damage to NOLA talk to her, call her on her shit. it's madness. it's so brilliant it leaves you with that hopelessness, that despondency only the work of master can deliver. that feeling that there's not hope for your own work, that no matter how important what you believe you are writing is, it will never measure up.
i am writing a book about cannibalistic history. Patricia Smith is writing a book about a storm. and my money's on hers. it's gorgeous. it's horrifying. it's madness. if she's around, and you're not, you're losing something magnificently important. go to the source. close your eyes. listen.
oh my god, y'all, she's writing a book about Katrina. in which the overarching metaphor is of the storm as a very sassy woman. other storms of that season are the siblings that don't talk to her. other storms that've done great damage to NOLA talk to her, call her on her shit. it's madness. it's so brilliant it leaves you with that hopelessness, that despondency only the work of master can deliver. that feeling that there's not hope for your own work, that no matter how important what you believe you are writing is, it will never measure up.
i am writing a book about cannibalistic history. Patricia Smith is writing a book about a storm. and my money's on hers. it's gorgeous. it's horrifying. it's madness. if she's around, and you're not, you're losing something magnificently important. go to the source. close your eyes. listen.