Stay by Nick Flynn

Author:Nick Flynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Unnamed Press
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

published in elle / uk, 2010

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL SUICIDE

In thinking about sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and poetry, I’ll start by riffing off a Robert Duncan quote:

“I want to compose a poetry with the meaning entirely occult, that is – with the meaning contained not as a jewel is contained in a box, but as the inside of a box is contained in a box.”

… meaning contained not as a jewel is contained in a box, but as the inside of a box is contained in a box—

To me this is a Zen koan, the idea that it is the emptiness of the bowl that makes the bowl, that without the emptiness there is no bowl. The idea that the self is only made up of non-self elements (no flower without rain, sunshine, dirt, worms, clouds, etc.).

But how does this connect to poetry? Poetry deals with white space, it contains (or attempts to contain) the tension of all that is unsaid, it pushes against the unknown …

Duncan again: “I want to compose a poetry with the meaning entirely occult …”

Here is a definition of the occult (from Wikipedia):

The occult (from the Latin word occultus “clandestine, hidden, secret”) is “knowledge of the hidden.” In common English usage, occult refers to “knowledge of the paranormal,” as opposed to “knowledge of the measurable,” usually referred to as science.

Knowledge of the hidden: Duncan wanted to not simply push against the unknown, but to access, through poetry, knowledge of the hidden. Knowledge of the hidden does seem to be in the basic job description when applying to be a poet, but for me, I have to be careful: the hidden is a place to visit, but I have no desire to pack my bags and move there—I need to always keep one hand on the earth, to remind myself I exist.

As for knowledge of the measurable: any good scientist will admit that our knowledge of the measurable represents only a tiny sliver of the universe—nearly everything, still, is unknown …

But how does all this connect to sex & drugs & rock ‘n’ roll?

It has been pointed out that sex & poetry & rock ‘n’ roll need repetition, but I’d argue that, if you’re someone like me, when you apply the concept of repetition to drugs, bad things happen. This is when someone like me enters the shadow realm, which has its own importance (transgression, the doors of perception, all that) but in the end it always seems to become mind-numbingly repetitive.

In the end, like mission creep, it reveals its lack.

Rock ‘n’ roll is, like drugs, essentially, about disruption—this is the good part. Think of Greil Marcus’s extended riff on the Sex Pistols, Lipstick Traces—subtitled A Secret History of the 20th Century—it hopscotches across the art movements of the last hundred years that destroyed everything that came before, from Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring to Dada to the Situationists to punk rock.

Marcus quotes Pete Townshend in his intro:

“When you listen to the Sex Pistols, to ‘Anarchy in

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