Issue 3.2
Summer 2023
Robert Guzikowski
Reflection
I wrote many of the Aphasia Poems as thoughts on navigating aphasia for myself and others with the condition. The poems take as inspiration the pith instructions of the Lojong mind training tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Atisha (982–1054 CE) originated the practice. Several significant Tibetan Buddhist teachers developed versions of it. Chekawa Yeshe Dorje’s (1102–1176) slogans are the most common basis for commentary. The tradition continues robustly into the present. An illustrative slogan is: Be grateful to everyone. I begin each of the four stanzas with a slogan-like phrase followed by an auto-commentary.
"Aphasia Poem 21," and many other Aphasia Poems, originated with a “poetry attack.” Waking up from a sound sleep, I have the experience of language attacking me. The only way to defend myself is to transcribe rather than compose the core language of the poem. I regard such poems as truly surrealistic that reflect its philosophy. The poem’s word play comes from this.
The poem is also a meditation on language itself. It explores self and world in the word, and what happens when producing words is difficult to impossible.
Aphasia Poem 21
revelate every word
body as if every word becomes
awareness itself aware itself
gyrate every body
word self as if it becomes every
word speaking self-aware selflessness
articulate every
body word body as if every
word becomes every body
noctilucinate word
lesion cloud body as if every
word’s intracranial gleaming speaks
celebrate word bodies unexplained
abandon aphasia banish blame
Robert Guzikowski published work in the1970’s and 80’s in several magazines including Grub Street (Bronx, NY), Letters and Tightrope. He co-edited The Parlor City Review. In the 1990s he had encephalitis which caused brain damage resulting in various disabling conditions including aphasia. He has since resumed writing. His book, A Scattering of Words, is one of the winners of the UnCollected Press 2023 Book Publication Contest to be published in 2023. Some of this recent work has been previously published in Kissing Dynamite, The Raw Art Review, Rogue Agent, Wild Roof Journal, Concision Poetry Journal, Full Mood, Anti-Heroin Chic, HOLE IN THE HEAD re:VIEW and Fig:ment.
Bob's Book Recommendations
Training the Mind by Chogyam Trungpa
Lucy Church Amiably by Gertrude Stein