The Daily Glance
CAConrad and Frank Sherlock's The City Real & Imagined is a Philadelphia epic, but it's not an epic about the city as much as about what the city produces. Really, it feels like we are watching Conrad and Sherlock walk through the city for the entire length of the book without stopping, and they tell us what they see, from people on the steps to conversations they have with homeless people and prostitutes. The narrative presence is strong, jaded, and right on. They don't stray from commentary on life, themselves, and poetry.
Lorrine [sic] Niedecker
mopped floors for
a living but if
her poems were
bullets some poets
would get it good!
Or, a few pages lated.
but he [Ben Franklin] once
told them all "if
we don't hang
together we will
certainly hang
together"
some poets need
to hear this
their lack of
generosity
to protect
imaginary
careers
is so
damned
boring
This quotation is something you might hear in conversation but which doesn't usually get included in poetry. Much of this book works like that, things that you might hear walking through a city but only say to the person next to you. Yes, jaded and right on.
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