Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
I’m reading a book called Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. She quotes a poem by Phillip Lopate. This poem is great and unfortunately reminds me of WAY TOO MANY people I know.
We Who Are Your Closest Friends
By Phillip Lopate
We who are your closest friends feel the time has come to tell you that every Thursday we have been meeting, as a group, to devise ways to keep you in perpetual uncertainty frustration discontent and torture by neither loving you as much as you want nor cutting you adrift. Your analyst is in on it, plus your boyfriend and your ex-husband; and we have pledged to disappoint you as long as you need us. In announcing our association we realize we have placed in your hands a possible antidote against uncertainty indeed against ourselves. But since our Thursday nights have brought us to a community of purpose rare in itself with you as the natural center, we feel hopeful you will continue to make unreasonable demands for affection if not as a consequence of your disastrous personality then for the good of the collective.2 Comments
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[...] without a legal right to create insist on doing so, insist on making community, reminds me of the Phillip Lopate poem, “We Who Are Your Closest Friends” which Anne Lamott quotes in her Bird by Bird. It is a description of a secret club of the [...]







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[...] without a legal right to create insist on doing so, insist on making community, reminds me of the Phillip Lopate poem, “We Who Are Your Closest Friends” which Anne Lammott quotes in her Bird by Bird. It is a description of a secret club of the [...]