----- Original Message -----
From: "Halvard Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:52 PM
Subject: Sonnet: Unpacking My Toothbrush
Sonnet: Unpacking My Toothbrush
Long an anti-dentite, I’ve searched high and low for post-
consumerist dentistry, coming to believe, after many
years, that such a thing may not indeed be possible, or
even feasible. Traditional relationships leave open few
avenues, aside from this thicket of language, that even
are worth exploring. Digital dentistry seemed, once, to be
promising. “Open, please. Now rinse.” But the tooth
lodged in my forehead continued to cause problems:
blinding headaches, for example. My parents’ first
teaching to me: “Watch where you’re going.” But then
how I navigate, more than what I create, became more
and more central to my living. Quantity trumps quality.
Even at my age, I have more teeth than I will ever use,
more fat than I shall ever, ever come to chew.
(after Kenneth Goldsmith)
[http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/07/
i_am_unpacking_my_digital_libr.html#more]
Hal
I like this. The narrator's ornery strangeness, implied by "anti-dentite"
(what could that be)? Then, after a fantasy any reader can share -
instantaneous, "digital" dentistry - the unemphatic switch to the surreal
("the tooth / lodged in my forehead"). Which implies, at the least, awkward
relationships and is in line with our initial sense of the narrator. So is
the mysterious suggestive contrast of "navigate" and "create"; he - one -
would be more concerned w/ "navigation" w/ a tooth rammed in one's brow. My
only suggestion is to drop "come to" in the last line. Good poem.
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