Journal, Day Five April 7, 2006: Poetry and Silence When one speaks, who answers back? What is a question in a poem? Sometimes I think there should be no answer—not that silence is the answer, but the gesture of the question is the point. God’s silence ceases to be troubling—spiritually or politically—if one views wondering this way. It’s not reassuring. It’s a [...] by Kazim Ali

Journal, Day Four April 6, 2006: Poetry and Community I turn 35 today. May I ask you for a gift? My name is Kazim. Growing up, I always believed this name to mean “Patience,” which pleased me. And a complex “patience” at that—the name implied an ability to bear bad times without complaint, but also an ability to receive fortunes without being spoiled. Someone more [...] by Kazim Ali

Journal, Day Three April 5, 2006: Poetry and Painting On a cloudy day, at the ocean, staring out at the horizon, one can see two things. That the earth does curve. And that the place at which the sky and the sea meet disappears. In the fall of 1999 I moved to New York City with a backpack full of clothes, a blank journal, and a couple of books. In one of them, Ink Dark Moon, [...] by Kazim Ali

Journal, Day Two April 4, 2006: Poetry and Music The instruments I love the most are the ones that resonate—a cello, a double bass, the English horn, the oboe. I like to hear the drummer’s fingers move across the drum, or the metallic noise of a callous dragging across a guitar string. Similarly, the voices I love the most are the ones that fail—a singer like Björk [...] by Kazim Ali

Journal, Day One April 3, 2006: Poetry and Dance Saturday evening I sat on the train platform of the Marble Hill station, looking out at the river, Inwood Forest beyond it, the sun setting behind the rocks. A long time ago, on the eve of the war, Marco and his sangha from the Village Zendo buried an Earth Treasure somewhere in the forest as part of a prayer for peace. It [...] by Kazim Ali