a note about the title

I took the title of my blog from Allen Ginsberg's poem America. The original line reads: "America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?" 

This poem speaks to the odd experience of standing simultaneously in complete identification with and in complete contrast to a place or an idea. Ginsberg addresses his country, establishes his disassociation with it, realizes that he actually is America, then reflects on the paradox of this epiphany. (If you haven't read the poem, please do. Really.)

The way Ginsberg feels about America is the same way I feel about pretty much everything. In order to love something I have to kind of hate it. It looks like I'm going backward when I'm really going foreward. I run from God, I end up running into God. Make sense?

The question "how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?" is rhetorical. It answers itself. America is a holy litany in a silly mood. My life is a holy litany in a silly mood. I want my writing to be the same. I think that's honest.