Four and Twenty

The May issue of Four and Twenty is out now with my poem "The Nature of the Parts."

Poetic placement

Scholars & Rogues has accepted my poem "The Anthropocene Scene" for publication.

Not too prolific in April

I have posted 1 new poem.

My energy (Toltz)

And the least comforting eternity scenario of all time, one that is growing daily in popularity, one that people never stop telling me about, is that I will die but my energy will live on.

My energy, ladies and gentlemen.

Is my energy going to read books and see movies? Is my energy going to sink languidly into a hot bath or laugh until its sides ache? Let's be clear: I die, my energy scatters and dissolves into Mother Earth. And I'm supposed to be thrilled by this idea? That's as good to me as if you told me my brain and body die but my body odor lives on to stink up future generations. I mean, really. My energy.

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

Holding down a job (Toltz)

The worst thing you can say about someone in a society like ours is that they can't hold down a job. It conjures images of unshaven losers with weak grips watching sadly as the jobs slip free and float away. There's nothing we respect more than work, and there's nothing we denigrate more than the unwillingness to work, and if someone wants to dedicate himself to painting or writing poetry, he'd better be holding down a job at a hamburger restaurant if he knows what's good for him.

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

Certainty of belief (Toltz)

To feel you know with all your heart Who made the universe, Who manages it, Who pays for it, et cetera, is in effect to disengage from it. The so-called religious, the so-called spiritualists, the groups that are quick to renounce the Western tradition of "soul-deadening consumerism" and point out that comfort is death think it applies only to material possessions. But if comfort is death, then that should apply most profoundly to the mother of all comforts, certainty of belief—far cushier than a soft leather couch or an indoor Jacuzzi, and sure to kill an active spirit faster than an electric garage door opener.

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

But how? (Toltz)

I had to do something. But what? I had to be someone. But who? I didn't want to imitate the stupidity of the people around me. But whose stupidity should I imitate? And why did I feel sick at night? Was I afraid? Was fear making me anxious? How could I think clearly if I was anxious? And how could I understand anything if I couldn't think clearly? And how was I going to function in the world if I couldn't understand anything?

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole