"That Writing in an Empty Room Feels Like Money Wasted" and "Money Being" by Shane McCrae
Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a poem by Shane McCrae for his sixth in a monthly series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a poem by Shane McCrae for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
* * *
That Writing in an Empty Room Feels Like Money Wasted
The heavy pastness of
Money drags even
back ideas
from the timeless present Lord / Of their conception
into money’s present past / Or if I had more money would it not feel even present gone
I write Lord from the living room
Where also Lord I write
My daughter now in bed
Lord I have said or say it now
Or said and say it now / Time is not money
being in time is money / Thinking in time is money
Writing in time is money and
having an audience any
audience feels like money coming back
I have to Lord believe / It would
and does
It will come back and bring me back
* * *
Money Being
I seeing say the world but money comes between
Always the name of the thing and the thing itself / A second garden interrupting
Lord / The naming of the world
A second garden Lord and as the first
No locus of creation money being
Instead the place in which I found myself already Lord created money being
The place from which I speak the already Lord created into being
Lord money re-inscribes
No god itself / But where I go
To be with and to hide from God
You / I name the world from where I hide from You
Lord money being the name that calls
the living to life
