i haven’t managed to stop thinking, but i did enjoy returning to that november evening, my first time to hear you put your poetry in the air, and my interest in the different ways the text and the reading called upon/for space. i’ve been lucky enough also to hear philip read from *zong!* and to get a sense for how those words (her words? the judge’s words? boateng’s words?) occupy the space of a room of poets and poetry readers. but it was before the book was published — so i wasn’t able to consider how/whether the poem “scored” the reading. ultimately, in both cases, the textual space and the aural space are equally powerful without needing to be identical in shape/time. in fact, i think you’d really have to warp time to approach that kind of identity. since the poems already warp time, that would be a new trick: doubly warped. what would that look like? sound like? if i knew math, i might be able to describe that curve, but i’m not positive . . .

i’m still thinking, and (perversely?) enjoying thinking, about “the relation between the logic of reparation and the logic of representation.” for now, i’ll read on (more backlog ahead…).

looking back, meant to say earlier, on backlog # 1, that i’m glad you are onto gerald barrax. one of nc’s best-kept secrets.
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