one of the books i've been slowly reading is stet by jose kozer tr. by mark weiss. then today find that anny ballardini points out a tribute to kozer. i'm monolingual. have no gift for languages but i clicked thru the tribute just the same.

which i guess what i'm thinking about how i love the wash of languages in our lives. translations of writing is a critical process in my writing. i can get thru perhaps bit of french and spanish is ever-present in california. even if i don't know the language, say russian or vietnamese, i like looking at the original texts and listening to the poems in their original language.

which again is a way of saying that i admire, and envy, writers who can blend and translate their poems in varying tongues.

which among poet-bloggers with anglo-style names, for example, both ryan daley and cheryl clark seem to be comfortable both in spanish and english.

which of course, for example ernesto priego writes with brilliant facility in both english and spanish. and guillermo parra often translates from spanish as well.

these are just a few of the examples of the wash of languages i mean. and i'm trying to tease out my meaning since i suppose i'm not articulating it all that well. what i suppose is that our world cultures are enriched and made strange by our languages. and that to be a writer today esp. in the ether as i am for the most part translations are crucial for my poetics.

i suppose it's the hybridization of our world[s] that i find so freaking thrilling. if yr asking i'd call myself a california poet before calling myself a u.s. poet. because in california, a spanish name, it seems that all the world cultures are here. in sac some neighborhoods look like moscow, while others look like tijuana, etc. i am a poet writing in english with a hispanic surname who digs all the whole big wide world.