Very enigmatic piece, John. The short lines give it a breathless urgency. Why is the book so important to find? Why did he put off looking for it? Who is the other person in the house and where is he or she? Is the other person a child, or is the child (who may or may not be real) a third person in the house? The lines, “I am / free of the means needed / to verify sensations.” make me think he must be a ghost, no longer possessing sense organs, but nevertheless able somehow to detect some smells and sights. If he is dead, the comment that “there is nothing to be seen / or heard or smelled” would make sense. Or is the speaker simply very old? Does he need the book to prepare for his death? He finds the book he’s looking for “lying face down now / on the far end of the table / behind the computer screen.” Had he rejected the book earlier? David Hinton is a scholar and poet known for his translations of Chinese poems, but also for his books on Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and ecological awareness. So many questions. Nice job!
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