I need to start reading again. Maybe some Mencken? Hunter Thompson read him and he's a Baltimore writer who gets referenced in The Wire. Maybe some Upton Sinclair. I heard the movie he made last year was good.
At any rate, I notice a pattern of spiralism whenever I don't read enough. I get bored with my own steez and my pituitary goes limp even when I'm typing at breakneck speeds. And what is writing for if not stimulation of the pituitary?
Back when I thought I wanted a PhD in Literature, I asked one of the few professors still willing to speak with me what he thought of my poetry. He took a glance at about 75 poems I'd brought to show him and said "You need to read more."
"Okay."
He basically called me a one-trick pony and said I needed to think about what poetry can do, what are the possibilities of the form. He lent me four rare and expensive journals of experimental poetry called "The Germ," and insisted I return them. I'm not going back to verse or anything but it's important for a guy to remember at various times that he's just a sideshow act.
Thanks, prof. Someday I'll send "The Germ" back to you. I haven't got it at the moment though.
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