Saturday Staff

Went in early to shave and wash my hair, went to the library, went to Kroger (where I can now buy food, booze, and underwear), then the pub for lunch. TR arrived to be receptionist, I stayed upstairs, reading Sir Tom, he is a great stylist. You can see him in Melville, especially. That tone. It's rich. Tending toward the over-arching, Rococo. I was going to reread "Moby Dick" this winter anyway, because of some recent critical theory, and now I have another reason. It's a three day read for me, reading full time, eating, taking a walk each of the days, because I actually can read myself into a kind of paralysis, and probably going to town, once, for something. This time I'd probably keep notes, report my responses to you, just as a reader; even as a publisher, I was never a critic, or an editor, for that matter, I just read closely and liked some things. Enslin is dead, an old oak in the forest. I published six or seven books of his, visited him, him me, I must have a hundred of his letters, I need to dig them out, someone will be doing a dissertation or a biography soon enough. I love so much of his work, but we had a falling-out over his assumption that I would publish a particular book. I didn't like it. This situation arose with several poets, but the fact is that hand-setting, treadle-printing, and hand-binding a book is a lot of work, and I only did things I liked. Still do. The museum is my ward, right now, someone has to listen for that hammer in the pipes, scrape shit off the floor, act under the assumption that art matters. A sign of the times is that three or four people scrounge cigaret butts from the 'Smokers Section' outside the back door. My butts are a particular favorite, because I often roll a smoke, go outside, then get called back in for a phone call or something, and ditch half a cigaret. Because I roll my own, a cigaret costs me almost nothing, the cost of a paper, I roll Kentucky tobacco I buy by the pound and keep in the freezer. Figure it out, a cigaret costs me between two or three cents, not a big deal, I can ditch one, mumbling, under my breath, fuck me in the shower on Tuesday. Tergivesate was the word of the year. How do they arrive at these things? Glenn would know what I meant. To change one's attitude, to equivocate. I'll never use that word except that i just did. Share your lexicon with me. I recognize that Santa by his canopy games with me. Whatever you say can be used against you.