Uncomfortable Minds, livre ebook

“Uncomfortable minds” is Larry’s Sorkin’s riff on poet e.e. cummings ‘ words, “Cambridge ladies who...are unbeautiful and have comfortable mind” which refer to the conceit that uncomfortable minds are universal to all human beings. Larry Sorkin’s collection of poems—sometimes joyful, sometimes elegiac—explore the idea of the restless, uncomfortable state as either something we can run from, try to fix, or embrace. Each poem in the collection explores some disturbance in the psyche, with poetry as a way to confront the disturbance, use it, embrace it.
He poses wilted
roses in hand to be Husband
to his wife, been trying on that
persona for years though rarely
fools himself let alone
the lovely woman who humors his
attempts. He puts on the requisite
uniform of Businessman and steps
into an office where staff pretend
they know him as he struts, issues orders, puts
on a serious face before declaring
an important meeting and goes
home for a nap. Surely,
in the privacy of his room, he
can convince himself it’s not
an act, then dreams of becoming a Red
Tailed Hawk’s drift and call
over undulating hills. He’s January
Rain, plunging through freezing
air, then ice that
shatters, melts and seeps
into dirt. Awake, buoyed, he
can be Anything, Anyone. In his garage,
he decides to impersonate Small
Engine Mechanic—isn’t every man
born skilled in such? Chainsaw seeing
through his ruse refuses
to start.