Poem-A-Day: Costumes Exchanging Glances by Mary Jo Bang

February 26, 2014 Costumes Exchanging Glances   by Mary Jo Bang The rhinestone lights blink off and on. Pretend stars. I'm sick of explanations. A life is like Russell said of electricity, not a thing but the way things behave. A science of motion toward some flat surface, some heat, some cold. Some light can leave some after-image but it doesn't last. Isn't that what they say? That and that historical events exchange glances with nothingness.       Copyright © 2014 by Mary Jo Bang. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem  "Bertrand Russell said, 'Electricity is not a thing like St. Paul's Cathedral; it is a way in which things behave.' And it's not 'they' who say, but Walter Benjamin who said, 'Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness, with the base and the banal.' In September, 1940, Benjamin died under ambiguous circumstances in the French-Spanish border town of Portbou, while attempting to flee the Nazis." --Mary Jo Bang  Most Recent Book by Bang The Bride of E: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2009).          Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.     Mary Jo Bang's most recent book is The Bride of E: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2009). She directs the Creative Writing program at Washington University in St. Louis.   Related Poems Dangerous Astronomy by Sherman Alexie String Theory Sutra   by Brenda Hillman  Scientific Method  by Adam Clay  __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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