The Poetry Closet: Christopher Luna — Sources & Acknowledgments

Words in Some Songs Perhaps Hold A Certain Unsettling Knowledge are borrowed from:

Susan, the idea that songs are prophetic is the kind of magical thinking which I would normally reject, but there has been too much coincidence, too often, not to feel that some songs perhaps hold a certain unsettling knowledge, beyond the understanding of their creators. I suspect we all have intimations or intuitions, that are holding conversations with the future, but that we tend to disregard, perhaps at our peril. As songwriters we are given scraps of information - images, visions, projections, divination - that become the building blocks for songs; these uncanny hunches are the stuff we work with, the material with which we create, so the songs end up feeling elastic, stretching themselves forward in time and back into the past. They can feel like preternatural witnesses to things yet to come, signallers calling urgently from an emergency - the future – while haunted by what has gone before. Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files Issue # 78.

Today is the day I follow my intuitions. Kendrik Lamar “YAH.”

He has transposed his observations into a language of his own. Sheehy on Toledo, Smithsonian June 2019.

Art is mistakes that we love. Zig Zag Montefusco

That’s a perfect exposition of mind. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to Allen Ginsberg, after Ginsberg read him Jack Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues.

The design has its own narrative. It becomes more than just a simple object. Marianne Rendon as Patti Smith in Ondi Timoner’s 2018 film Mapplethorpe.

There was an insatiable need to try to create a language for something that I felt was there, that was real to me. Artist Lyle Ashton Harris, interviewed by Maximiliano Duron for Art News, Spring 2019. 

It was a language out of necessity. It was what sustained me. Artist Lyle Ashton Harris, interviewed by Maximiliano Duron for Art News, Spring 2019. 

No is always on the table. There’s some magic in working with the negative. Musician David Berman, quoted in his New York Times obituary on August 9, 2019.

This dilemma of living in a liminal space. Aria Aber.

Look, I grew up in a racist world. That conditioning, that story, is in me. So if I am dominating, I want to be called on it. I want to be pointed out. Because we need to keep decolonizing every day. Eve Ensler, in conversation with bell hooks, “Strike! Rise! Dance!” Lion’s Roar, June 18, 2014.

There’s so much potential in that uncertainty. Life coach Megan Hellerer, interviewed by Bridget Read for New York magazine, October 28-November 10, 2019.

You risk nothing, you get nothing. The idea isn't to blend. The idea is to be a witness and a party to something that takes your breath away. Josh Homme, in the film American Valhalla.

I enjoy the result of clashing together different images, objectives and personalities
as well as contrasting styles. I have never worked thinking about the result of anything.
It’s not really a choice. The possibility of synergy and accident in the coming together of different creative powers is what is interesting for all parties. Space itself is important. Rei Kawakubo, in conversation with Bjork, Interview Magazine.

Art functions through empathy…[When you] see someone else who is struggling with something and grappling with something, that creates a space for finding that within yourself. Artist Andrea Fraser, interviewed by Zoe Lescaze. 

People love symmetricality. Saul Goodman, Better Call Saul, Season Four, Episode 10.

I like to touch every part of them. Textile artist Adam Pogue, New York Times Style Magazine.

I love movies that don’t proclaim to know anything but that literally splatter themselves all over the place, and then somehow, by the end of it, you realize that the only reason they were able to do so was because they were held so preciously by somebody, in that scaffolding. I love Cassavetes. I love all the shit that made us think we can make small movies about things that aren’t plot-driven. But are soul-driven and explorative. Kristen Stewart, Vanity Fair September 2019.

Your calling is to be still. Bill Farver.

The poet must not close his eyes, must not avert them. Werner Herzog.

There is never any end.  There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get. John Coltrane to Nat Hentoff in the liner notes to Meditations.

You better enjoy the moment, ‘cause you may not get another one. Josh Homme, in the film American Valhalla.

No growth without loss. Jon Boisvert.

Drag reminds people that all artifice is temporary—that all structures are just temporary, and the only thing that stays real is the energy. RuPaul, interviewed by Judge Judy for Interview magazine, August 19, 2019.

Experience each day as a gift woven around wonder.  Valerie Underwood.

A moment of realization—reality really is love and the spirit. All boundaries kind of disappeared. Everything was just beautiful. We saw the light in everything. We felt we have to bring it into the world. Gisela Getty, interviewed by Mark Rozzo for Vanity Fair May 2018.

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Words in Souls Unfettered are borrowed from:

I.
You’re a reincarnated Wordsworth. Sarah Wood to Jenny Suzumoto.

To Bill Farver: Your poems are like sermons. To Linda Rogers: Positive and skyclearing.
A terrific proposal for stretching the possibilities. Leah Klass.
 
An emergence of their dirges. Rule Brand.
 
Why not embrace the potential disorder of this day in all its imagination? Bill Farver.
 
Had a kind of cathartic quality to it. Holly Matthews to Leah Klass.
 
It’s a day and a day be what it is. A stretched timeline this. Valerie Underwood.
 
The blessed, messed up brave. Steve Getlein.
 
Remembering what we cannot know. Sarah Wood.
 
As though you were going somewhere. Gwen Osborne

II.
The evidence is in. Cathie Padgett.

We were all more permeable than we imagined. Suzanne La Grande.

I want this truth to penetrate every cell of my being. Rae Latham.

Little epiphanies how they pop. A very succinct vision tracing knowledge. I felt immersed in it. Letting patterns prevail. Something to marvel at amidst peril. Rule Brand.

The sweetness and suffering of life intertwined. Wonderful how you used the text and the subtext. Joy leaper. Jenny Suzumoto.

My first dip into hybridity. Nia Maya

The little messages left unsaid seem to be a test. Janet Steward.

Just a rambling. Gwen Osborne.

Rolling river that came down to a chokehold. I’ll have a go at making the best of now. With some hope it may propel me into a fruitful What Will Be. Linda Rogers.

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