Today is Walt Whitman's birthday, born in 1819. Happy birthday, Walt!
And it's also the 19th anniversary of my accident. Which is weird in at least a few ways. Weird in that 19 years seems almost an incalculable amount of time. Weird in that this date doesn't actually mean anything to me. I once forgot about it, missing it by several weeks. I had to laugh.
And it really is a day that's no different than any other. I don't believe I could muster up any kind of somber feelings. I remember it because of Walt and because a good friend's birthday is on the 30th.
Otherwise, it doesn't mean much. That said, I remember the day so very vividly. I had just graduated from the sixth grade the day before. It was a Saturday and I was invited to the house of my gifted teacher for a cookout. I got up early, dressed in these awful yellow shorts and shirt, and left.
A few hours later I'd break my neck in two places on a borrowed 10 speed bike. Lying there in that ditch, I'd know my left arm was broken by the crooked way it lay across my chest. My right arm, broken also, was underneath me, out of sight. I couldn't feel anything.
The whole story is, of course, epic and horrible. And not horrible.
Writing this brings me back to the memoir I pick at from time to time. If only I were more interested in myself!
About Me
- Paul
- Paul Guest is the author of four volumes of poetry and a memoir. His debut, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, was awarded the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His second collection, Notes for My Body Double, was awarded the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. His third collection, My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, was published by Ecco Press/HarperCollins in 2008. His fourth collection, Because Everything Is Terrible, was published by Diode Editions. His poems have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His memoir, One More Theory About Happiness, was published by Ecco in May 2010 and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award, Guest lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
7 comments:
Paul,
Anniversaries of this kind are exactly as you say. They both mean something and nothing at the same time. I think it must be a way for the mind to stay healthy. And you should write a memoir. I bet a lot of people would read it.
I'd read it. I think you're fascinating.
I loved your book of poems; I bet the memoir would be fascinating too, or at least a different perspective than the poems.
Well, now that we found out you're not Deep Throat, what could you possibly have to say? Oh...you weren't THAT Deep Throat, but...
Just kidding. If you wrote a memoir, there's a strong chance I'd have Karri read it and summarize the high points for me.
Who plays you when it's adapted as a Lifetime movie? I vote for Jamie Foxx.
Robin Williams, I think. Or Richard Simmons.
No, no, no.
Scott Foley, silly. He's you, remember? Or, you're him. Noel. From Felicity.
Oh, and I'd read your memoir. So, write it already. (smile)
Gene Simmons, perhaps?! I hear he's an aspiring actor, among other things.
;~)
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