O at the Edges

Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.

Recording of “The Draft”

Posted on October 17, 2019 by robert okaji

The Draft

All memories ignite, he says, recalling
the odor of accelerants and charred

friends. Yesterday I walked to the sea
and looking into its deep crush

sensed something unseen washing
out, between tides and a shell-cut foot,

sand and the gull’s drift, or the early names
I assign to faces. This is not sadness.

Somewhere the called numbers meet.

* * *

“The Draft” first appeared in Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art.

8 thoughts on “Recording of “The Draft””

Rana Pratap on October 16, 2019 at 6:59 am said:

Nice post

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- robert okaji on October 16, 2019 at 8:59 am said:
  
  Thank you.
  
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Andrew Dalrymple on October 16, 2019 at 8:36 am said:

loved hearing this

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- robert okaji on October 16, 2019 at 9:00 am said:
  
  Thanks very much, Andrew.
  
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Jazz Jaeschke on October 16, 2019 at 1:20 pm said:

Good recording. Always interesting where you pause … how that influences reception.

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- robert okaji on October 17, 2019 at 11:52 am said:
  
  Thanks, Jazz! I read aloud while writing, which helps frame the writing. But of course pauses change from reading to reading, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not. It’s interesting to see how one brief pause can affect perception.
  
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seanzee02 on October 17, 2019 at 6:08 am said:

love the delivery on the audio

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- robert okaji on October 17, 2019 at 11:52 am said:
  
  Thanks very much, Sean.
  
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