I am an INTP on the Meyers-Briggs personality scale. Introverted: I need a certain number of hours of solitude. N is for iNtuitive, as opposed to Sensory. I love abstract systems of thought, even though I am often attracted to poets who are very concrete. Thinking rather than Feeling, I favor Perception over Judgment. Why do I put any store in this sort of classification? It actually explains quite a bit, especially my failure as a teacher.

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Preparing class. Cartesian doubt in modernism. Jorge Guillén's cogito begins with the existence of the outside world. It is this world that convinces the poet of his own existence. "La realidad me inventa." But of course he is there from the beginning as the thinking subject. Everything must be reordered in an artistic structure for it truly to exist. The principle of order. You couldn't have just the sentences of Hejinian's "My Life." You also need to ordering principle: a certain number of sentences in each section. What is surprising is the sheer simplicity of this organizing device.

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Reading Harryette Mullen's "Sleeping with the Alphabet." Is it too facile in places? That would be my only critique. I don't always like catching on that fast! I like to feel stupid for a while before I "get it." On the other hand, it is pleasurable reading for a crossword puzzle aficionado like myself. The conjunction of Oulipean techniques and Afro American attitude is bound to find many admirers. I'm sure Harry Mathews would like it.

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You can practice a jazz ride-cymbal pattern against a hip-hop beat. Just pretend those 8th notes are quarter notes and everything falls into place, since the swung 16ths become jazz eights. But then those backbeats end up being on "3" instead of 2 and 4. It sounds very odd.