Editor's Note
It's necessary to maintain a state of disobedience against...everything.
-- Alice Notley
When I began Poemeleon, back in the kitchen of December 2005, over a few glasses of wine, it was an act of disobedience: I was tired of always knocking at the door of poetry, wanting to be let in. So I cut a hole in the wall, made my own door. Once inside, I somehow managed to carve crude passageways, allowing other people entrance too. It’s not always pretty in here, and I don’t know where I’m going, tunneling in the dark.
In fact, it’s easy to get lost. But, to get lost is to be found? As Notley writes, “...self means 'I' and also means 'poverty,' it's what one strips down to....” We write to get lost, and we write to be found, to be so bare on the page that we know everything we can possibly know about ourselves, which is nothing, and always, shifting.
I initially chose the topic of “disobedience” because so much is happening in the world that needs upending. I don’t need to say what. You already know. And yet, each of you is thinking something different, probably, from each other. But as the issue evolved, I began to see different issues emerge, different ways that we disobey everyday.
Here, you will find disobedience to spouses, to ways of seeing, to faith, to government, to social norms, expectations, and rules. In addition, each writer was asked to reflect on what ‘disobedience’ means to them, in fifty words or less; some writers obeyed, others did not. That makes me happy.
Rule-breaking isn't always a form of disobedience; and, sometimes, even, rule-following can be.
In any case, I'm not here to tell you what to do.
Now: Get lost.