In the "Collected Works" of Lorine Niedecker (ed. Jenny Penberthy) a facsimile of "Next Year or I Fly My Rounds, Tempestuous" appears. The "palimpsest" is Niedecker's handwritten snippets in a biweekly calendar. Underneath the facsimile of each page is a transcript. This afternoon, it being very quiet here in the library, I rewrote the mss in my own hand on one page (front and back) of my notebook. A great exercise that lead me to writing my own short poems around the places where I wrote hers. I had to use my teeniest Bronte-esque hand to fit it all on, but then ended up with some extra space, which I'm alternately filling with notes from re-reading Penberthy's introduction to the book and more of my own writing. And look at that. It went from being a very dragging 9:30 AM, with me longing to get outside, to--ouila!--2 PM.
