Ode to the New York Heat Wave
My family discovered each other in a house
during a heat wave. The five of us,
on the bare floor, trying not to touch
each other, breathe too loud, and
inching closer to the window. My sister
is the youngest and won’t stop crying.
She asks if we’re poor now, if she has to go
get a job. We laugh, congratulate her
for being able to see the bigger picture.
At night, my dad orders buffalo chicken pies,
vodka pies, a classic pepperoni, and as many
cold liters of Coke we want, keeping our mouths
full and quiet. We broker
bathroom time like strangers
meeting for the first time
every morning.
Su Cho, from The Symmetry of Fish (Penguin Books, 2022)
‘These appearances catch at my throat; they are the free gifts, the bright coppers at the roots of trees.’
Annie Dillard, ‘Seeing’ (1974)
summer solstice
Jenny Zhang
will be significant
im going to release something
soft and radiant
and true
into the world
The uses of not
Lao Tzu
Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t
is where it’s useful.
Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot.
Where the pot’s not
is where it’s useful.
Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn’t,
there’s room for you.
So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn’t.
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way (translated by Ursula K. Le Guin)
Translator’s note: “One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny. He’s explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counter-intuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe. He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots.”
Kleinood. April, 2023.
June, 2024.
There Are Mornings
Even now, when the plot
calls for me to turn to stone,
the sun intervenes. Some mornings
in summer I step outside
and the sky opens
and pours itself into me
as if I were a saint
about to die. But the plot
calls for me to live,
be ordinary, say nothing
to anyone. Inside the house
the mirrors burn when I pass.
Liesl Mueller, from Alive Together (LSU Press, 1986)
The Consulting Room
By Dawn Garish (CEO of Life Righting Collective, poet, medical doctor)
what we bring:
the encumbrance of the body with its weighted spaces
the body’s volume, its flabs and backups
the bomb of the flesh, its distress flares
with rampant blooms of delinquent cells
the stink and leak and soak
the mysterious liver, with its dark acrid ink
the exhausted horse of the beaten heart
the rubbish bin of the distended belly
the body as faithful dog, or extreme machine
the reluctant child, the terrorist, the caged beast
two smoky bellows, the chug and growl of gut
the sweet taboos of penis and anus
the silenced vagina, silenced
the glands releasing their secrets, the blood salt
the national flags of skin, all itch and burn
world turmoil condensed and funnelled
into the skull, the body vault
what we want:
the elixir and tonic, the weightlessness of flight
or support of root, movement clear as water or wind
warm ember of the palm held as a poultice
against a headache, the hurt flank, the panic
relief from the blind cyclical scrimmage
a sanctity that fills the intact and serene body
a reliquary for the sacred, the explicit lyric woven
and distilled into exquisite music, a new holding story
the physical forged from a different kind of image
Timothy Snyder, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century on How to Survive in Trump’s
America, November 21, 2016 (originally posted on Facebook)
Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or
communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good
time to do so. Here are 20 lessons from across the fearful 20th century, adapted to the
circumstances of today.
1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like
these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then
start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory
obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.
2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not
speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf.
Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended
from the beginning.
3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional
commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law
state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.
4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of
“terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be
angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all
authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think
of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the
end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don’t fall for it.
6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your
own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don’t use
the Internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to
read? Perhaps The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The
Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by
Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.
7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange
to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the
moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.
8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can
criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is
spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize
investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your
screen is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.
10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your
emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with
unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your
surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you
should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the
psychological landscape of your daily life.
12. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of
hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an
example for others to do so.
13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else.
They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local
and state elections while you can.
14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will
know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing
something good.
15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you
around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using
alternative forms of the Internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For
the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state,
looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.
16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends
abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going
to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be
against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a
Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military
intermingle, the game is over.
18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you
and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding
themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this
means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in
professional ethics.)
19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will
die in unfreedom.
20. Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for
the generations to come. They will need it.
https://www.chicagoreview.org/fred-moten-the-little-edges/
David Krut Projects Residency. Johannesburg, January 2023. Photographs by Robyn Park Ross
https://www.chicagoreview.org/fred-moten-the-little-edges/
Work in progress. Leuven, 2023.
Visiting Daniella. Berlin, 2024.