Judith Butler

Although we are compelled to give an account of our various selves, the structural conditions of that account will turn out to make a full such giving impossible. The singular body to which a narrative refers cannot be captured by a full narration, not only because the body has a formative history that remains irrecoverable by reflection, but because primary relations are formative in ways that produce a necessary opacity in our understanding of ourselves. An account of oneself is always given to another, whether conjured or existing, and this other establishes the scene of address as a more primary ethical relation than a reflexive effort to give an account of oneself. Moreover, the very terms by which we give an account, by which we make ourselves intelligible to ourselves and to others, are not of our making. They are social in character, and they establish social norms, a domain of unfreedom and substitutability within which our “singular” stories are told. (Giving an Account of Oneself 20-21)

from The Geographical History of America

by G. Stein


Volume I

Money is what words are.
Words are what money is.
Is money what words are
Are words what money is.
There can be no romance without nature, there can be no money without words.
There can be nature without words.
Nature is here used in the sense of natural scenery and what land is.
And so nature is not what money is. (461)

indiscriminately

or wander

each space according

fragments

having not been

an array of detail

layered placing claims

each settled point

lingering

wander

complete

ancient timing
unraveled
whisper
over
colored flags
the unheard
stuck in my throat
smoke
flawless
i am always falling down
toes
or radiance
unhinged
bend at the waist
further
into the earth
whisper your
treasure
laden
cartoon
images
the narrator
translates broken scenes
recalled (remember take back etc)
her character hitchhiking across
states angles colors
of flags
whispering
prayers
against time
disperse

from Writing Down the Bones

by Natalie Goldberg

Go Further

Push yourself beyond when you think you are done with what you have to say. Go a little further. Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that's why we decide we're done. It's getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.