‘The point of lucid death,’ he said, ‘is to retain the consciousness of dying, while blunting the agony of it.’
In November 2007, I travelled from Boston to New Delhi to visit my parents. It was an unseasonably cold week. A dense fog from the northern mountains had poured into the caul of the city and sat, soupy and unmoving, for days on end. Connaught Place, the epicentre of the city’s commercial activity,…
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
