Two poems from the collection Listening Devices<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IN DEFENSE OF LETHARGY<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do not understand all these expectations\u2014<\/p>\n

neither those that I have of myself<\/p>\n

nor those that have been placed upon me.<\/p>\n

I am not beast enough for this burden.<\/p>\n

I do not see myself as a journeyman;<\/p>\n

rather, at best, I\u2019m a reluctant trainee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Instead of courage, I can boast only of having<\/p>\n

the cowardice of my convictions. I did not arrive<\/p>\n

ready to work. I came here to take my Sabbath rest.<\/p>\n

I find myself unconcerned about which bird gets the worm.<\/p>\n

This shirt has a stain; this suit is a mess.<\/p>\n

As you can tell, I have not dressed to impress.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I bring nothing to the table other than my lassitude.<\/p>\n

Wherever I go, I take a certain pride in my sloth,<\/p>\n

whether I\u2019m in Dublin, or Tennessee, or Persia.<\/p>\n

Unless acted upon by some foreign (and unwelcome<\/p>\n

force) an object at rest will remain at rest. This<\/p>\n

is my guiding principle: the law of inertia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

INTRICACIES OF RECOLLECTION<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As with each loss we suffer, each<\/p>\n

new love functions as a palimpsest:<\/p>\n

the way a chalkboard resists complete erasure.<\/p>\n

We write the new text over the old,<\/p>\n

which may appear or fade out<\/p>\n

from time to time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like wet cement we are . . . impressionable.<\/p>\n

This might simply operate as a function<\/p>\n

of memory\u2014not merely a recollection of<\/p>\n

the narrative, but emotional<\/p>\n

memory, you know,<\/p>\n

the sentimental kind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For example, when you reminded<\/p>\n

me that I had been practicing<\/p>\n

poetry without a license,<\/p>\n

I laughed because it was funny,<\/p>\n

but it also raised the echo of<\/p>\n

other, earlier disqualifications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mind, without much thinking or fanfare,<\/p>\n

writes upon a time-worn script: not so much out of a sense<\/p>\n

of economy, but in the way that old dogs struggle<\/p>\n

with new tricks. And when our memory encounters<\/p>\n

holes or gaps in the story, like an actor who\u2019s<\/p>\n

forgotten his lines, we ad-lib the narration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We invent the past when it\u2019s not<\/p>\n

available, as though we found ourselves<\/p>\n

in the witness protection program.<\/p>\n

Thus, like a jilted lover, our remembrances<\/p>\n

are a bit unreliable. They have their own agenda,<\/p>\n

and we can never be certain of their game plan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 James R. Dennis, used by permission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two poems from the collection Listening Devices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1098,810,813,830,886,812,1278],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-excerpt","tag-lone-star-listens","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-poetry","tag-texas-author","tag-texaspoets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}