SNAPSHOT OF A POET (#6): "WHAT ARE YOU READING?"

[Poets are invited to participate in this series of snapshots of poets' reading habits. For information, go HERE.]


Ed Baker on Reading


1)  What are you reading now?  As well, what is in your To-Read-Soon stack?

I'm reading Leonard Shlain’s  SEX, TIME, and POWER:

I am also re-reading my unpublished book, NEIGHBOR.

[Eileen's Note:  Here are two poems from Ed's manuscript:]

Dead Ignition


green 
station 
wagon

parked 
between 
commitments

shadows 
moved

all inclinations

push 
it
on

far 
beyond 
dead 
battery

whine
had been 
unwelcome 
then & there

from here 
to there 
jumper

cables 
long

stretch 
to 
start

her 
long-thin 
body

hard 
against 
spark 



*

A View


I hardly knew 
her then

there was something 
particular that slowed

me

leaves 
suddenly 
playing 
in
warm 

breeze

deliberately 
I had kept 
my 
distance

to get a better 
view
across the way

for days shades 
up

blinds open

nothing was 
said or done

for days 
thinking 
meant

more 
of
so

what 
was 
just 
beyond

going 
over