Why Write

Why Write

i've always look for joy as a pretext to write

but could not or would not

fall face down upon the knot of pain which seems 

to make even the simplest things

a complete and frightening mystery.

this way i have avoided being torn

by the terrific closeness with that heart-shaped weapon

which makes us die. i have left out

important fragments of my life. i've taken only

the juice out of the squalor. i have avoided 

loving more than i could love.

- Andrei Codrescu

Books

Books

death covers me with a fine dust.

i love fat used books. they are

like used fat bodies coming out of sleep 

covered with fingerprints and shiny 

snail trails.

i wish to read the way i love:

jumping from mirror to mirror like a drop of oil

father and farther from my death.

but god gives us fat books and fat bodies

to use for different reasons

and less a metaphor i cannot say

what haunts me

- Andrei Codrescu

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. 

- D.H. Lawrence