Literacy had been a theme of mine in my early short stories.
But so ambitious as a young man! I want to learn everything. I want to read everything. I read Confucius, Lao Tzu, Plato, Aristotle, saints, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hume, Nietzsche. I read Shakespeare, literature. Marx and Freud. The Old and New Testaments! My eyes go bad, I can't keep a job for reading. And all I find out from so many books is this--that nothing changes. Then I stop reading. Better to drink. What is new? (From "Death Is A Paper Tiger," The Mississippi Review,, 1974)Through my long career I spent more hours on my own work than reading the work of others. Since slowing down, I've tried without much success to make up for lost reading time.
In My Old Age
in my old age
I read constantly
a gesture toward
some semblance of
literacy
it can't be done
there are too many books
too many poets, novelists
too many, too many
(and this counting only those
worth considering)
in this zero-sum universe
no wonder there's such
horror and atrocity
to stand against such
accomplishments of the spirit
now and again
i add my own work to the pile
and the next day remove it
in a fit of despair
I go back to reading
in my feeble attempt
at literacy
and wait for more horror
from the daily news
Listen to it.
