Something I thought about:

  • I dipped back into some manuscript work, and that felt good — I had several realizations regarding what should be cut and what hasn’t been developed enough yet. I also started to wonder about perspective. I think what I have is right, but I need to experiment a bit.

Something I did:

  • PMing
  • Research on MARC records and TEI
  • Work writing
  • A bunch of ms work — at last
  • Met with our plant person
  • Had an afternoon to myself
  • Walked more

Something I read:

  • I’ve been thinking about these questions about the role of the artist in times of war since poetry school at BU — before, probably. 9/11 and the aftermath? My BU degree was during that aftermath. Safia Elhillo’s recent newsletter made me think.
We are told so often and in so many ways that the role of the arts is to get people to care, but where is the proof? In an age of almost unlimited surveillance, almost unlimited documentation, what has the visibility of human suffering done to reduce human suffering? What has the performance of my suffering done to ease the suffering of my people, to stop the war, to feed the hungry, to bring back the dead? I do not say this as an expression of despair, as an excuse to throw my hands up. I say this only to remind myself who I am really talking to in my work, to remind myself to reject the outward-facing project of trying to humanize myself or my people to anyone who doesn’t already hold that a core belief.