Two Pieces

The Institute of Loafing

The Institute of Loafing began accidentally. It was not planned. It came to me through the act of writing, though, true, at the time, it was the wrong kind of writing, as it was the writing of fiction (even if anti-fiction fiction) instead of the non-fiction I were tasked to do. Thinking back on it, it is the product of hard work, the hard work of getting the job done, hard work I spent most of the time avoiding, loafing The pressure to make something of all that loafing is what produced the idea of the Institute, but it was like I had to loaf to get the job done I was thinking of starting up a blog called the Institute of Loafing (IOL), but I wonder whether I’ll have the gumption to do much with it, to write much in there, on any kind of regular basis. Of course that would be in keeping with the idea of loafing. I’m afraid there’d be next to nothing to it as I’ll do nothing with it, loafing as I do If I were to blog, I was thinking, I’d have to deal with the contradiction between loafing and institutionalization. Wouldn’t one negate the other But while the Institute of Loafing was a natural outgrowth of the hard work of writing my dissertation, it did not in fact surface there but in another byproduct of writing my dissertation: I HATE FICTION, which is a product of what they call “goofing off,” but which is, properly speaking, an act of loafing Btw, if anyone wants to publish IHF, by all means let me know, as I’m just too into loafing to attend to that side of things, the business side of poetry; it’s like grading papers—the teaching part’s great, but then comes exchange value Since loafing is an act, an action, it does produce something, something that is sometimes quite concrete, certainly more concrete than one’s daily labors, generally speaking; in one hole, out the other I’d say “trying to write my dissertation,” but in fact I wrote my dissertation, completed it, and so it wasn’t in the end a matter of trying even if for the longest time that’s all I was doing. For the longest time, all I was doing was trying. For the longest time, I comforted myself with the thought that, although all the trying seemed like nothing other than trying and no doing—though, true, the trying involved doing—all the trying would in the end become doing if I managed somehow to complete the dissertation. Hence, what seemed all along like all trying and no doing, and thus utter failure, would, if successful, simply become what it is I had to do to get the job done, thereby transforming, in an instant, loafing into work For a long time I thought the Institute of Loafing would have to be a real place, a place where you’d go for seminars on loafing by experts on loafing. That you’d go off for a weekend retreat at the Institute of Loafing or a weeklong one. Maybe we could get accredited and offer seminars on a semester by semester accredited basis, however much that may contradict the very idea, the very spirit of loafing I also thought of including live loafing, streaming constantly on my would-be blogspot. Where people could go to observe (and learn from) poets loafing. Poets because poets are experts at loafing. The experts. Some are, at least. Others are way too busy for it Walt Whitman obviously was a loafer and of course he wrote about it. Surely Walt is somewhere behind the idea of the Institute of Loafing, though he’d probably hate the institute side of it, as do I. Of course, it’s not really an institute But the institute idea is not the same thing as institutionalizing loafing. In my mind, institute is just a way to get the humans to pay attention to loafing today. Without “institute“ there’d be no Institute of Loafing and hence no attention paid to loafing and hence less loafing. Loafing would remain strictly private, disconnected from other more rewarding forms of loafing. Privatized loafing, which is rampant. If there was no institute in loafing, the humans would spend their time trying not to think about loafing, which only makes them feel guilty the more they loaf, guilty because it’s a privatized form of loafing, which, of course, is why they need to go to the Institute of Loafing There are of course different kinds of loafing. Some are better than others. That is to say, there are bad forms of loafing and in fact these bad forms proliferate and have as such given loafing a bad name. Bad loafing has doomed us and that’s why we’d just assume not think about our loafing. Only an institute like The Institute of Loafing can redeem it for us, can make us think about loafing, eventually getting to thinking about the good kind of loafing, the kind that can save us Loafing can help save the planet, perhaps. Certainly learning how to loaf again can help us save the planet, or at least it can help us save the planet from becoming hostile to our “way of life,” our life itself. Hostile to us, the planet our enemy, just when we thought we were in charge We’ll print out “loafer” pins and t-shirts and hats and bumper stickers, perhaps, if we have the gumption Not that you’re going to stop laboring; though, true, loafing replaces the labor privatized loafing is, and will, if we will, eat into labor’s time, ideally, knocking it down to size Exercising can be part of the loafing life, but it is not a form of loafing. So often exercising is the negation of loafing. Some of those who are prone to exercising have the hardest time loafing. They know not how to loaf. And often are prone to abhor loafing and the loafing life Walking, the kind that’s not exercising, is certainly a great form of loafing, especially the kind where you’re like loafing when you’re walking; loafing can be exercising, but not the other way around Loafers are not slackers, though they are often mistaken as such. Perhaps it takes a loafer’s eye to see loafing for what it is. Slackers have a loafing spirit, but are too caught up in productivity, finally. Loafers do at times slack off, of course, thank goodness One might think my interest in poets and work (labor) means I’m interested in work (labor) when my focus on work (labor) has only to do with my interest in loafing (work) Loafers tend not to be power walkers. They may very well walk quickly though when they’re loafing. But not because they are power walking or bound for anywhere I’ve known many a fast walker and I can assure you they were headed nowhere Twelve Poems from The Institute of Loafing 1 This poem is like an Eileen Myles poem, like one of those ones in sorry, tree or not me 2 And this one’s like Rodrigo Toscano like anything out of to leveling swerve 3 I don’t know just so it seems like totally right for this moment, this age or decade not in retrospect but right now 4 But I want it also to be Rae Armantrout before everyone knew who she was 5 Though it could very well be something recent, of that kind 6 This one’s Charles Bernstein’s thank you for saying thank you though it may be Charles Reznikoff too 7 For a while it was Appolinaire’s zone Then came Tarkovsky 8 And what about Ken Smith who died suddenly after a stint in Cuba, no doubt having a hell of a time, knowing Ken 9 But this is becoming something like a list so I’ll now shift into a new thing yet to be 10 Something previously un imaginable yet seemingly inevitable now that it’s done 11 Yes, yes, yes Like when harry met sally Easily as easy as that 12 Any thing Tan Lin