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Disappearing: a List

Disappearing: A List • Leave for no destination in particular. • Plastic surgery. • Burn my wallet and shoes. • Buy or steal an identity; become another. • Run into the forest, wear a wolf’s skin, look and smell wolfish downwind. • Yield my being in an intimate exchange, to the thrall of scotch or peyote or cocaine or intense pleasure or pain. • Be subsumed into the collective mind of a cult or the Secret Service or the Carthusians • Become young rather than old. • Die, just because. It’s just a list of possibilities. Nothing more. Not a complete one at that.

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Debbie Guzzi

Date: 4/6/2014 3:50:00 PM

Something tells me you may have done some of those things already, age aside you are a very intriguing person, very brave to move so late in life BUT I think I would chose there to go as well, one of the most forward looking places in the USA & not likely to have power problems ;) Glad you're back. Light & Love

Painted Hunter

Date: 3/11/2013 12:31:00 PM

I had a good chuckle reading this, Jack....wear a wolf's skin...just picturing your profile picture with a wolf snout at the forehead...haha...Although I feel complete seriousness in much of it on a different level. It makes this piece intruiging...Love it!

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/11/2013 2:15:00 PM

I really don't know why I started on this tangent. It just was an interesting topic to explore. There were quite a few other ways, but they were far too gruesome to include. Jack

Barbara Attaway

Date: 3/11/2013 11:27:00 AM

Your poem "A List" has, hopefuly, inspired me! What a sweet idea. I've been on a dry run lately. Can't get it going. Good luck on the "Disappearing" part; something we all would like to do at various times. Good poem, Jack.

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/11/2013 2:18:00 PM

This list had been sitting around for well over a year, and was initially much longer. As I say in response to Caleb, I edited out those that were too awful to include. I'm a great list-maker. I find them helpful in structuring my life. Thanks for reading. Jack

Donna Jones

Date: 3/10/2013 6:35:00 PM

This is a stirring write Jack..I had to think about it a while...all sounds quite interesting....Donna

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 6:45:00 PM

Thanks for reading it, Donna. I hope you had a good weekend. Jack

Andrea Dietrich

Date: 3/10/2013 2:15:00 PM

Thanks also for you comment on Pieces. I have noticed that when I write "definition" poems, I really enjoy the collecting of phrases and words and figuring out how to "place them" Would that be something like "product placement" an expression that I always hear? Maybe I should have gone into advertising. I love the idea that you do collages.

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 4:15:00 PM

Part 2: I think of them as bits to collage together in an almost random way, them massage them until they make some sort of coherent sense (I hope). They are like bits of paper to me, my basic collage material, and I treat them exactly the same way, sort of glueing them together at random. Its reassuring to know that you collect like I do.

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 4:13:00 PM

I can't figure it out, so I'm breaking it into two parts: Some of my pieces just happen. They are whole things. They read differently too. The ones about my father and mother are that way (Circle and Too Much There). I too collect words and phrases, from any source I can find. I have pages of them.

Andrea Dietrich

Date: 3/10/2013 2:14:00 PM

ooh, I LIKES your bucket list. To me , however, it is a dream list, since we know many of these would be impossible. The best ones: becoming young, have a new (richer) identity. haha. And plastic surgery. I could sure get into that one in a few years!!! oh, i enjoyed the one on drugs too. I've never done drugs but the way dentist's laughing gas makes me feel, I think it would be quite the experience.

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 3:57:00 PM

I wrote bits of this some time ago, during what I recall was a rough few months. I didn't want to go away; I just wanted to vanish for a while. I'm glad to say that's all over now. In addition, I have a way of just writing down whatever pops into my head, mostly words or short phrases, then sorting them out later, after they've had time to age. A lot of this one happened that way.

Poet Destroyer A

Date: 3/10/2013 10:21:00 AM

Good morning, ;-) wow..Jack, imagine the world and the disappearing list.. i like the run int a forest... very interesting...LINDA

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 11:00:00 AM

I know that people disappear all the time. None of them probably become a wolf, but it might work. Personally, I like the Carthusian idea. Take a look at "Into a Great Silence" for my inspiration.

Timothy Hicks

Date: 3/10/2013 9:53:00 AM

"Run into the forest,wear a wolf’s skin, look and smell wolfish downwind."... I read a book awhile ago called Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, this really reminds me of that! Wanting to become one with the woods, instead of one with the crowd. I think this list tells me a lot about who you are as a person. Gaining years is inevitable, but staying young in your heart is a choice. Though this is just a list of things you want to accomplish or just do it's strangely moving... I like your work Jack!

Jack Jordan
Date: 3/10/2013 10:56:00 AM

I won't ever disappear, until the very end at least. I was just toying with the idea. What exactly would it require? I got the idea from "Syriana," a movie starring George Clooney. He does this at the end of the movie, only he burns his car too. The rest is my invention. I don't actually want to vanish, but it's an interesting idea to explore.