Writer in Residence Sam Miller responds to Talking Duets: #1 (2/20), An Evening with Paul Chan and Claudia La Rocco (2/24), and Eiko solos.

Part I

Lack of policy is a policy
Lack of clarity is a kind of clarity
The limits of my power are the limits of my language
Lack of power is not a kind of power
Silence is power
The body’s stillness is the final statement on power
Practice confirms the impossibility of perfect
Knowledge is not power
You know – pain wisdom pain Jarrell –
That sort of knowledge.

2/23/16

Part II
The giving of thanks
(Prologue to the solos)

We thank Paul for his witches, fates, & furies
We thank Emmanuelle, John, Bebe, & David for their willingness to spond, even to
respond, to Tuesday’s questions
We thank Claudia for lighting, relighting, the lamp of poetry in this sanctuary
We thank Maria for planting her gray flag at our northern pole, this tidal
“paradox of stillness” so suits Eiko’s imminent pilgrimage

Thank you to Judy and Lydia for letting us share this journey

And we remember C.D. Wright
whose truer deeper stronger words
are more than enough and already much missed

2/25/16

Part III
“Begin with nothing, remote starting point, the area of darkest color. Begin with
nothing, which is yourself.”

C.D. Wright

A first solo (preview)
112 Second Ave

Topophilia

Words searching for a place
Body bereft searching for a rest
Marking that resting place
Eiko was here
Was now always

The first words on the southern wall of this second “dancers’ church”

“wherefore seeing we also are”

the urgency is now palpable
The open and closing doors
The bowl of spilt water
Stained glass
The ragged kimonos
this list and the resistance to empathy

The last words written on the northern wall are

“the author and finisher of our faith”

So endeth the solo

2/24/16