UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology_SS 2025_FOR PRINT - Flipbook - Page 32
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
made sense to craft the entries into prose poems, to format them into
his forthcoming book, I Do Know Some Things, expected out in
August with Copper Canyon.
The manuscript for the book, which he shared with me, is moving,
dense and rich with recollections, woven masterfully with threads of
his past, his recovery, and more lyrical pieces that seem to come from
parallel universes he visited or dreams he had while in the initial days
and weeks of recovery. One emotion that resounds from the new
book is also a feeling readers might intuit when reading poems from
Crush and War of the Foxes: loneliness.
R
who has been in many lonely situations. I don’t have insights or
undoubtedly reinstate the book as pivotal for a new generation, he is
than feelings. He says, “‘The Museum’ is about the inability to
But the reader will also recognize that “loneliness” is part of what
they are reading into the poems. Siken tells me, “I am a lonely person
ichard Siken won the coveted Yale Younger Prize for
Poetry in 2005 with his iconic 昀椀rst book, Crush, and
theories about loneliness; I have expressions of the feeling of it.”
went on to publish War of the Foxes a decade later
His focus, rather, when writing, is about “the ‘why’ of loneliness,”
with the esteemed Copper Canyon Press. Although Crush is
and so his poems paint a picture for the reader, with facts rather
being rereleased in a 20th Anniversary hardcover edition that will
still recovering from a stroke he su昀昀ered on March 15, 2019.
share. ‘Detail of the Fire’ is about damaging each other. ‘War of
The stroke necessitated that he relearn his ability to articulate
Red Wallpaper’ is about being wrong. Loneliness might be a
the Foxes’ is about saying no instead of yes. ‘Self-portrait Against
his thoughts—昀椀rst into nouns and verbs, and then into complete
consequence of these situations, but the situations are what interest
sentences. He found himself needing to rebuild himself: what he
me.” Often, he shares, “Death is the subject matter; loneliness is a
knew to be true, which were memories of others’ experiences and
part of the experience.”
which were his own, and how to reconcile memories of his past...
While abandonment or loneliness are certainly states he experienced
as far back as childhood. He began to journal, to write, and, he told
after his stroke, the fear of them or experience of them can be felt in
BOMB’s Z. L. Nichels in an interview last year, “My neurologist
poems from the two previous books. In the preface to Crush, the
said the fact that I am a painter and poet is why I recovered. Because
late, great Louise Glück wrote about the book being about panic,
of building of pathways—I already had such weird pathways built
although “the word is never mentioned.” Siken shares, “She called it
on lateral thinking, that continuing to paint and write poetry
panic. I experienced it as my baseline and I didn’t need a word for it.”
would help with the neuroplasticity.” In our Summer 2024 issue,
And who can’t relate to that—to having a feeling but not needing (or
Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross spoke extensively about how
perhaps not wanting) to attach a de昀椀nition to it?
neuroplasticity is enhanced by the arts, so I reached out to Siken.
Siken’s preface poem in Crush, “Scheherazade,” teaches us how to
He tells me, “I don’t know what was due to rest, physical therapy, or
read the rest of the book, since, as Siken shares, “The author of the
making art,” but since writing is one signi昀椀cant way in which Siken
poem is telling a story. The reader/listener/lover/threatener is asking
has long engaged with the world, and since so many studies show
for a story. The rest of the poems in the book are the stories that the
the signi昀椀cance of neuroplasticity through creating, the act of writing
author is telling. The author is the storyteller, like Scheherazade is a
as an antidote during his recovery is certainly worth pondering.
storyteller.”
The journal entries were never meant for universal access, but rather
The poem presents facts, paints a picture of a moment. Siken says,
were intended to be reentry into the world and into himself. “At 昀椀rst
“Poems aren’t made out of feelings; they’re made out of facts,” and his
I had no nouns. There was no way to tether myself with meaning,” he
certainly are. (And yes, the poem, in 14 lines, is an American Sonnet,
tells me. Siken is drawn to facts, and with “no emotional landmarks,”
with a clear volta at line 10, although Siken claims this is “a sonnet by
he sought them by writing, dissecting the real from the false by
accident” that was “unconsciously informed.”) The poem is concise
fact checking his “memories” as he wrote, including topics and
and exquisite, and, of course, reimagines a moment from the sultan’s
memories he had “suppressed or avoided.” At a certain point, it
point of view in One Thousand and One Nights, better known to
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