Dear Body:

Dan Machlin
Ugly Duckling Presse

•
“Use of the colon. A colon introduces an element or series of elements illustrating or amplifying
what has preceded the colon.” – The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition

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Sections of Dear Body:
          Dear Body:
          Antebodies
          Beautiful Linear Bodies

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“          I wanted to write a perfect vignette/
description — perfect fusion of memory and encyclopedic entry:”
      – from “Letter 2”

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“Her heart is fit for home —
I — a Sparrow — build there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest.”
      – from my edition of Emily Dickinson – p. 43 no. 84
          [43 – 1 = 6 x 7
                    = lines of each poem in “Antebodies” x syllables per line
                    = number of poems in “Antebodies” section]
          [84 + 1 = 85
                    = number of numbered pages in Dan Machlin's Dear Body:]

“Suppose if this is snow, I am never with you. We were in this house see and living our separate lives but never meeting.”
      – from “Letter 1,” the first poem

“The portion of a building, consisting of one or more rooms, occupied by one tenant or family. “
      – from the OED's definition of “house”

“The place of one's dwelling or nurturing, with the conditions, circumstances, and feelings which naturally and properly attach to it, and are associated with it.”
      – from the OED's definition of “home”

                    [0 = number of times “home” appears in Dear Body:
                    5 = number of times “house” (singular and plural) appears in Dear Body:
                    1 = number of times “housing” appears in Dear Body:
                    1 = number of times “households” appears in Dear Body:
                    1 = number of times “housed” appears in Dear Body:
                    0 = number of times “home” appears in Antebodies
                    4 = number of times “house” (singular and plural) appears in Antebodies
                    1 = number of times “houseboat” appears in Antebodies
                    1 = number of times “homes” appears in Beautiful Linear Bodies
                    0 = number of times “house” (singular and plural) appears in Beautiful Linear Bodies
                    1 = number of times “houseboat” appears in Beautiful Linear Bodies
                    [1 = number of times “forgotten deco motel” appears in Dear Body:
                    1 = number of times “hotel” appears in Dear Body:
                    1 = number of times “apartment” appears in Dear Body:
                    2 = number of times “apartments” (singular and plural) appears in Antebodies]]

“This body, he said (as if this specific body had a house, a housing).”
      – from “Fifth Letter”

“Herein I describe the state of being delimited by this perfunctory container.
Although you held your hand over my heart I could not believe your touch.

No strike that insane cliché and replace it with an equation.”
      – from “Letter to D.”

[“our lease was up”
– from “Edible Buildings”]

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“Do you believe we can learn
truths about one another
through a series of mundane
exercises? I think not.”
      – from “•”

“As if forced into this form,
you cannot afford to fret.
...
I can't explain why structure
is good for man but it is.”
      – from “••••••••••••••••••••”

“see form & not withstanding this and that being without me
thistle blatantly or borne in time a blaze looked”
      – from “Home-Dyed Uniforms”

“How you took a particle
and made it matter — ”
      – from “••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••”

“an abstract hope we think differently someday”
      – from “Waste Stream”

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“Finally you were this thing
you couldn't make go away —
a thing with a certain weight
that hung over your thin frame.”
      – from “••••••••••••••••••••••••”

•
“There was a fleeting feeling of confusion in my text — but when you came
around again you wrote a lengthy text in your own right.

Dear Body:

I never had faith that this letter-writing campaign would undermine our intimacy.

Instead I would buy pieces of land near 'forever-wild' forests in the hope that I might never again need to experience closeness.”
      – from “Letter of Intent”

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“      My Body, my body, I do not seek to separate my head
from my heart, sweat from speech but to reprimand any who would...”
      – from “Letter of Faith”

“A  H E A R T alone
Is  such  a  stone...”
      – from Herbert's “The Altar”

“Heart straining with
headache now”
      – from “211th Letter”

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“...
an insignificant self —
I'm just luck

I survived I think —
So all cells are superfluous”
      – from “Home-Dyed Uniforms”

“...No
matter over mindfulness
can silence houses.”
      – from “•••••••”

•
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greek (15)                          false advertising (14)                    epic (13)
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extended sales pitch (14)                   crapfest (13)”
      – from Amazon.com's page for Dan Machlin's Dear Body:

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“What snow brought in.
Light for light's sake.”
      – from “And All the Doors Close”

“I wet my mind

in distance

or else strikes a clock bell — ”
      – from “Epiphanies / Structureless”