Red Rot

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on editing

Post-breaking one of my molars, post-making a life-altering decision, I did what any over-thinker would do. I went to the library.

In Poets & Writers I read an interview with Philip Levine who said that while he started writing poetry at 18, he didn't feel like he wrote anything good (about work) until he was 35. At 18 he was angry. He lacked the "disinterestedness" that somehow clarifies and makes compelling. One day, he said, he was watching a special on tv about a father and son in Detroit who followed a Chinese worker into a cafe and beat him to death. The anger returned and Levine started the poem that would become "What Work Is." He said in the original draft the poem began, "Detroit is shit."

I don't need another reason to love Philip Levine, but I was happy that he said that. Everything I write begins with that rawness. Every poem starts with "Detroit is shit."

12:23 a.m. - 2012-04-04

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