Critics Page
“POETRY AS FORCES” AFTER Cecilia Vicuña
The "about to happen" / "poetry as forces" when Cecilia Vicuña says that the lies (the words, the language) of the Chilean dictatorship murdered & tortured thousands of people I remember the power of the word & i remember the power of poetry—"made of forces"—that holds something in the action of language—material consequences can occur—not always—literal action is necessary but the line between language & action no longer feels quite as precise as the street vs. the aftermath, an emergence of literature—unrestrained
i ask questions like
how to weaponize my own body
or what's left of it
how do we weaponize our selves
how to weaponize the poem words as weapons1
give the poem teeth
overflow its vacancies
with sharpnesses
momentary, transitory
criminal aesthetics
an unpublished sketch
of affinities
explicit revenge fantasy
& pride orgy
accumulation becomes
a book
a constellation of bruises
a blockade
a dance party
on the freeway
alongside, from
within, erupting
out of
we sharpen
our teeth
& make attempts
glass breaking
disruption
simultaneous
- Italics from Cecilia Vicuña's reading 2/12/2019 at Hauser & Wirth
