Friday, February 13, 2015

Hannah Weiner (1928-1997)

Hannah Weiner reading from WEEKS (1989)




(photo by Barbara Rosenthal)


(from WEEKS published by Xexoxial Editions)


WEEK 21

Rushing to do repairs the housing court had ordered    The worst kinds of conditions, almost concentration camps    He was trained and funded by Syria Many Americans will not travel abroad this year    Plastic guns are the latest in high-tech fire power    Would you spell out a little more clearly what you think the FBI man was trying to do Union officials said today it was not even close    Today the New York Public Library celebrated its 75th birthday    That cuts the survival rate by 50%    I think I’m very down to earth   Demonstrators were reported to have looted some market stalls in the city of Chiquimula and to have attempted to set fire to the marketplace in Zacapa    Debris was scattered for at least a 100 yards in all directions    The other alternative is stay at the beach all summer, just don’t come back Congress had curtailed military aid to Guatemala in 1977 on human-rights grounds, but the Reagan Administration argued that the new government of General Efrain Rios Montt was improving conditions dramatically    The Administration was requesting only a modest appropriation to buy spare parts for three army helicopters    But people were holding hands, carrying on as far away as Alaska    There may be as many as 21 million hungry Americans    None of those reports could be confirmed    He also served as ambassador to India    To breathe life into a dead economy    No spectators were injured Runners pounding the pavement to help famine in Africa     The ceremony stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific    This woman’s brother is missing in action     As quickly as the police leave, the drag racers return     Their aim is 50 million dollars to feed and house the homeless    It sounds like it’s just packed with ingredients to please an audience    Each order must earn its own keep    The retirement picture does not look good It’s designed for the entire family Strong abdominal muscles help you avoid lower back pain I’m quite some guy, I tell you   Are you intimidated by marrying the Kennedy clan    Two workers are dead and an industrial complex is leveled by fire 



WEEKS 29

Anybody can go into the pay phone business    We will never stop drug availability in this country by law enforcement measures alone    We should exert that force in terms of morality    Talks will resume without any preconditions 40,000 tons of uncollected garbage    With this drug doctors can use the patient’s own bone marrow    Aerobics are being presented here as a national sport    We need more hospital beds for psychiatric patients    This is an extraordinary bipartisan effort Fairness will be in the eyes of the beholder    Some businesses pay no tax at all    The pilots who will carry the Bolivians into action carry hand guns    The garbage will be picked up, starting tomorrow    The rich and famous are gathering at Cape Cod    The Hispanic World’s Fair has been around for eight years    You don’t allow yourself to be as open and friendly as you would like to be    You’re not getting older, you’re getting better    GAM leaders told Cerezo that they do not expect him to investigate the whereabouts of the 40,000    Guatemalans estimated to have disappeared during the past twenty years, but are demanding the investigation of some 850 documented cases that took place between 1980 and 1985    Black unions have already paid a heavy price Swimmers in their eighties were competing stroke by stroke    More than 500 movies have been captioned for the hearing impaired    It was a revolution in crime busting Rock ‘n Roll is now Rock ‘n Rap    Mrs. Abzug was in the middle of a political campaign when her husband of more than 40 years died    Making this film was like going to a party, you just sat around and created this little world    On this day in 1899 Ernest Papa Hemingway was born in a suburb of Chicago    The law just went into effect a year or so ago    Today the place was virtually wall to wall with cops    Can you inflict injury    Can you attract attention    Did you know that consumers bothered to redeem only about 4%    The drug itself seems to be winning the war    He killed the child with his bare hands Crack had its genesis in the Bronx in 1984 Neighborhood activists continue to press their case



from ABAZOO

(forthcoming from Xexoxial Editions)









The first time Lyx, I & Zon went to visit Hannah we were instructed by a mutual friend not to show up without ice cream. Somehow in the excitement of meeting her we had forgotten to get some.  After very graciously meeting us at the door and getting us seated she seemed a might flustered and unsettled.  "Did you bring ice cream," she asked.





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