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Two Poems from “The Day”

By Kenneth Goldsmith b. 1961 Kenneth Goldsmith

Metropolitan Forecast

D8 l the new york times tuesday, september 11, 2001

Metropolitan Forecast

today Less humid, sunshine

High 79. Noticeably less humid air will filter into the metropolitan region on. Brisk winds from the northwest. High pressure building east from the Great Lakes will promote mainly sunny skies. Daytime readings will peak in the lower 80’s.

tonight Clear, lighter winds

Low 62. Skies will be clear overnight as high pressure crests near the Middle Atlantic Coast. Humidity will remain low, and temperatures will fall to around 60 degrees in many spots.

tomorrow Mainly sunny

High 76. Sunshine and just a few clouds will fill the sky. Breezes will turn and blow from the south ahead of a cold front approaching from Canada.

Islam

e2 the new york times, tuesday, september 11, 2001

arts abroad

Continued From First Arts Page

On Islam, Mr. Houellebecq went still further, deriding his estranged mother for converting to Islam and proclaiming that, while all monotheistic religions were “cretinous,” “the most stupid religion is Islam.” And he added: “When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is

Sexual tourism

and inflammatory

remarks about

Palestinians.

very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.” And later, noting that “Islam is a dangerous religion,” he said it was condemned to disappear, not only because God does not exist but also because it was being undermined by capitalism.

NOTES: Kenneth Goldsmith is perhaps best known for his work Day, in which he transcribed every word of a mundane day’s issue of the New York Times into a nine-hundred-page book. For his work “The Day,” he did the same exact task to the New York Times of September 11, 2001. Hence, even the innocuous news reports and weather are loaded with fact, fear, and emotion, making us aware that language is never simply an innocent carrier of meaning but is wildly variable depending upon context and framing.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2009).

Biography

Kenneth Goldsmith is a poet and conceptual artist who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture. He served as a fellow of poetics and poetic practice at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, where he taught an undergraduate class that included creative writing and poetics, and also was part of a series of workshops and readings at the university's Kelly Writers House and the Center for . . .

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