An E2 original collection of short descriptive prose focusing on being lonesome and its forms.
Preface
"The apparition of these faces in a crowd /
Petals on a wet, black bough." - Ezra Pound
Loneliness is a primal human emotion. It slices through any set of logical divisions in humanity--it's understood by everyone. Loneliness can strike the most beautiful, outgoing man as quickly as the beggar on the street corner. Haiku were developed in part to express impersonal loneliness, collective loneliness. Loneliness is at the root of the human form.
The feeling of loneliness is not uncomfortable per se; there's a pleasant feeling in allowing oneself to bathe in the waters of one's own mind. Loneliness is a longing for connections with other people, for an equal mind to understand and react with you.
People go to the corner pub, to a downtown bar, or to coffeehouses to be lonely amongst others, but even there they don't reach out. They're resigned--for the moment--to themselves. Underlying the feeling is a belief that things will change: that in an hour, or a week, or a year, they will be able to share all that they've learned on their own with someone who cares about them. They know they will find someone who wants to empathize--or they feel that it is too late or too much time has passed for them to bother.
This collection is an expanding set of short descriptions of the lonely heart personified. The settings vary. The characters appear and disappear inside a few short paragraphs. But their feelings and their forms can be rediscovered in echoes of your own experience. They are written to be beautiful. They are written to warn and to encourage. They're written for you. Enjoy.
Works