“Theories of Influence,” a Poem by Anselm Berrigan

From the Collection “Don’t Forget to Love Me”

September 13, 2024  By Anselm Berrigan
14


“Theories of Influence”

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I do not know how I got through the first
day after the storm but recall that during

the night, doubting what I had seen
with my own eyes I walked once more

through the park. Where and in what
time I truly was that day in Orfordness

I cannot say even now as I type these
words. I cannot say how long I stood

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by one of the three windows, engrossed
in that view. Whenever I rested on that bed

over the next few days, my consciousness
began to dissolve at the edges, so that at

times I could hardly have said how I
had got there or indeed where I was.

I have only an indistinct notion of how
beautiful it all was, said Anne, nor can I

properly describe now the feeling of being
driven in that limousine that appeared

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to have no one at the wheel. I cannot
remember whether it was she who

turned the conversation to the fact
that nobody wears mourning any more

not even a black band on the sleeve
or a black stud in the lapel. But why

it was that on my first visit to Michael’s
house I instantly felt as if I lived or had

once lived there, in every respect precisely
as he does, I cannot say. Instead I left

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the building with a sick feeling in the pit
of my stomach & walked & walked without

being able to grasp even the simplest thought
well past the Westkreuz or the Hallesches

Tor or the Tiergarten; I can no longer say
where. I cannot say how long I walked about

in that state of mind or how I found a way
out. I no longer remember if it was the Lord

Asquith the Aristo or the Fabiola. To this day
I do not know what to make of such stories.

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–after WG Sebald

______________________________

Don't Forget to Love Me - Berrigan, Anselm

Don’t Forget to Love Me by Anselm Berrigan is available via Wave Books.




Anselm Berrigan
Anselm Berrigan
Anselm Berrigan is the author of many books of poetry: Pregrets, (Black Square Editions, 2021), Something for Everybody, (Wave Books, 2018), Come In Alone(Wave Books, May 2016), Primitive State (Edge, 2015), Notes from Irrelevance (Wave Books, 2011), Free Cell (City Lights Books, 2009), Some Notes on My Programming (Edge, 2006), Zero Star Hotel (Edge, 2002), and Integrity and Dramatic Life (Edge, 1999). He is also the editor of What is Poetry? (Just Kidding, I Know You Know): Interviews from the Poetry Project Newsletter (1983–2009) and co-author of two collaborative books: Loading, with visual artist Jonathan Allen (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2013), and Skasers, with poet John Coletti (Flowers & Cream, 2012). He teaches writing classes at Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College, and was a longtime Co-Chair in Writing at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts interdisciplinary MFA program.








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