fragments in search of a lecture

Memory colludes. It poses mysteries in the wake of time passing. How do I remember what propelled me to this place, this hill, this place of starch and stagger, this College of Doubt? What encounters might lead anyone to pick up a pencil and decide to imagine a world bordered on all sides by the rib of language? I have no answers to offer, only discrete engagements with a list that includes shadow, a transistor radio, a little known Canadian writer, theft, a sump pump, windows at University Hall, a literary journal and similar nodes. I make no claims in this lecture, argue no position, reveal in the end nothing that is new or revelation, though some shimmering literary facts will be presented: 'In 1651 John Milton went blind.' If you know me, if you have read my poems, minimal and inclined to fragment and iteration, then this lecture will seem a simple and consistent exploration of what I have expressed in the past. I am trying to find my way to Vermont, all over again. I might play harmonica, I might not. Come, share my discomfort in public speaking.

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In the summer of 2009 I will present a lecture that will, in its lineaments, engage what is hereby proposed.