Recorded here is “Wednesday” by Lisa Robertson from her book of poems, “the weather”. I began a series of 7 posts where I read aloud poems from “the weather” by Lisa Robertson. Each one is titled a day of the week - I first published Sunday, then Monday, Tuesday.
“this is our imaginary adulthood”
“the day might be used formally to contain a record of idleness”
“April has never lost it’s leaves”
“the dog that all the signs call senator”
"our sex is a toy weather”
With some amount of humility, I present this recording - I have severe obstructive sleep apnea and when it goes untreated (as it often has), I tend to suddenly fall asleep, especially when doing calm tasks like reading, even reading aloud. You may notice some of these moments here - at one point I fall asleep for a mere moment and drop my book, which wakes me up. Losing my place completely I blearily look for my place while making comments to myself. My boyfriend has since returned this book to the library, so I can’t check the accuracy of my result (it was his selection to begin with). At another point I’m fighting off sleepiness again and trudge through - attempting to correct my confused pronunciation from memory again as I go. It’s safe to assume any time you hear a longer pause I’m likely drifting off or recovering from a lapse in attention and looking for my place. Towards the end I seem to rally and cut through the shorter sentences and rhythms. Then, stumbling across the finish line, I fumble through the last sentence, then repeat it firmly.
This document is now almost something else, something other than what I intended. I do think still it’s pleasant and interesting to listen to.
Glossary of words I did not know:
prosody - the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry. The patterns of stress and intonation in a language.
Cassiopeia - the wife of King Cephaus who gives birth to Andromeda and is later changed into a constellation, a northern constellation between Andromeda and Cepheus.
caducous - (of an organ or part) easily detached and shed at an early stage.
runnel* - a narrow channel in the ground for liquid to flow through. a brook or rill. a small stream of a particular liquid.
concupiscence - strong desire, especially sexual.
palliatives - serving to palliate (to reduce the violence of a disease, to cover by excuses and apologies, to moderate the intensity of).
*Runnel is a favorite noun of hers, I’ve noticed it in other writing.
Share this post