An Affirmation

Charles Bernstein

1997

I am not I

when called to account—

plaster over, dumbly benched

the corrosive ardency

of blinkered identification.

To affirm nothing, a veil

of asymptotic bent,

prattling over-

tunes in the striated

ecstasy of an turned-

around spade. Sprain parkway

gulls its titular

horizon, & my growling

Zebra knows me just

enough to tip

her hat.

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Creator Bio

Charles Bernstein

b. 1950

Poet Charles Bernstein grew up in New York City. He is a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania, and is also an essayist, editor, translator, and librettist. Bernstein has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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An Affirmation

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An Affirmation

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