This Connection of Everyone with Lungs

thisconnectionofeveryonewithlungs

NEW CALIFORNIA POETRY

For
, by Carol Snow

Enola Gay
, by Mark Levine

Selected Poems
, by Fanny Howe

Sleeping with the Dictionary
, by Harryette Mullen

Commons
, by Myung Mi Kim

The Guns and Flags Project
, by Geoffrey G. O’Brien

Gone
, by Fanny Howe

Why/Why Not
, by Martha Ronk

A Carnage in the Lovetrees
, by Richard Greenfield

The Seventy Prepositions
, by Carol Snow

Not Even Then
, by Brian Blanchfield

Facts for Visitors
, by Srikanth Reddy

Weather Eye Open
, by Sarah Gridley

Subject
, by Laura Mullen

This Connection of Everyone with Lungs
, by Juliana Spahr

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 2005 by the Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Spahr, Juliana.

This connection of everyone with lungs : poems / Juliana Spahr.

p.      cm. — (New California poetry ; 15)

ISBN 0-520-24290-4 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN
0-520-24295-5

(pbk. : alk. paper)

 1. September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001—Poetry.   2. Victims of terrorism—Poetry.   3. Protest poetry, American.   4. Terrorism—Poetry.   I. Title. II. Series.

ps3569.p3356T46   2005
811'.54—dc22

2004008292

Manufactured in Canada

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10   9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI
/
NISO
Z39.48-1992 (
R
1997) (
Permanence of Paper)
.

Thank yous to Bill Luoma and Charles Weigl for all sorts of help with these poems. Thanks also to Ida Yoshinaga for her associative critiques.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Poem Written after September 11, 2001

Poem Written from November 30, 2002, to March 27, 2003

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Versions of these poems have previously appeared or will appear in various magazines.

“Poem Written after September 11” appeared with the title “Poem” in
Lit
6 (2002).

“December 2, 2002” and “December 3, 2002” appeared in
The Baffler
16 (2003).

“December 1, 2002,” “December 4, 2002,” “January 13, 2003,” “January 20, 2003,” “January 28, 2003,” “February 15, 2003,” “March 5, 2003,” “March 11, 2003,” and “March 16, 2003” appeared in
syllogism
6 (2004).

“March 17, 2003” appeared in the
Village Voice
(May 21–27, 2003).

“March 27 and 30, 2003” appeared in
War and Peace
(Oakland: O Books, 2004).

“November 30, 2002” and “December 8, 2002” appeared in
Bomb Magazine
(summer 2004).

poemwrittenafterseptember11/2001

There are these things:

cells, the movement of cells and the division of cells

and then the general beating of circulation

and hands, and body, and feet

and skin that surrounds hands, body, feet.

This is a shape,

a shape of blood beating and cells dividing.

But outside of this shape is space.

There is space between the hands.

There is space between the hands and space around the hands.

There is space around the hands and space in the room.

There is space in the room that surrounds the shapes of everyone’s hands and body and feet and cells and the beating contained within.

There is space, an uneven space, made by this pattern of bodies.

This space goes in and out of everyone’s bodies.

Everyone with lungs breathes the space in and out as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands and the space of the oceans in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands and the space of the oceans and the space of the troposphere in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands and the space of the oceans and the space of the troposphere and the space of the stratosphere in and out

as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands and the space of the oceans and the space of the troposphere and the space of the stratosphere and the space of the mesosphere in and out.

In this everything turning and small being breathed in and out by everyone with lungs during all the moments.

Then all of it entering in and out.

The entering in and out of the space of the mesosphere in the entering in and out of the space of the stratosphere in the entering in and out of the space of the troposphere in the entering in and out of the space of the oceans in the entering in and out of the space of the continents and islands in the entering in and out of the space of the nations in the entering in and out of the space of the regions in the entering in and out of the space of the cities in the entering in and out of the space of the neighborhoods nearby in the entering in and out of the space of the building in the entering in and out of the space of the room in the entering in and out of the space around the hands in the entering in and out of the space between the hands.

How connected we are with everyone.

The space of everyone that has just been inside of everyone mixing inside of everyone with nitrogen and oxygen and water vapor and argon and carbon dioxide and suspended dust spores and bacteria mixing inside of everyone with sulfur and sulfuric acid and titanium and nickel and minute silicon particles from pulverized glass and concrete.

How lovely and how doomed this connection of everyone with lungs.

Brooklyn, New York

poemwrittenfromnovember30/2002tomarch27/2003

Note …

After September 11, I kept thinking that the United States wouldn’t invade Afghanistan. I was so wrong about that.

So on November 30, 2002, when I realized that it was most likely that the United States would invade Iraq again, I began to sort through the news in the hope of understanding how this would happen. I thought that by watching the news more seriously I could be a little less naive. But I gained no sophisticated understanding as I wrote these poems.

September 11 shifted my thinking in this way. The constant attention to difference that so defines the politics of Hawai’i, the disconnection that Hawai’i claims at moments with the continental United States, felt suddenly unhelpful. I felt I had to think about what I was connected with, and what I was complicit with, as I lived off the fat of the military-industrial complex on a small island. I had to think about my intimacy with things I would rather not be intimate with even as (because?) I was very far away from all those things geographically. This feeling made lyric—with its attention to connection, with its dwelling on the beloved and on the afar—suddenly somewhat poignant, somewhat apt, even somewhat more useful than I usually find it.

November 30, 2002

Beloveds, we wake up in the morning to darkness and watch it turn into lightness with hope.

Each morning we wait in our bed listening for the parrots and their chattering.

Beloveds, the trees branch over our roof, over our bed, and so realize that when I speak about the parrots I speak about love and their green colors, love and their squawks, love and the discord they bring to the calmness of morning, which is the discord of waking.

When I speak of the parrots I speak of all that we wake to this morning, the Dow slipping yet still ending in a positive mood yesterday, Mission Control, the stalled railcar in space, George Harrison’s extra-large will, Hare Krishnas, the city of Man, the city of Danane and the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West, homelessness and failed coups, few leads in the bombing in Kenya.