On the Way to Your First AA Meeting

I like this a lot, Morgan. The entering of a new realm through the changing of a habit. And the enormous difference in sobriety and stead state alcoholism as seen through the transformative event. :) xo, h

thanks, Heather. your comment reminds me of something somebody said once, 'a change is as good as a vacation'

The equations here are right and inspired and ring bells. One does move between worlds. Alien, alienation intoxication and wonder...bingo.

I love this, Morgan. The alliteration, imagery are wonderful.

puts me in mind of a charles simic, pretty good company. nice.
plus, i kept thinking of alf, waiting for that moon to change...

Morgan, I have so much trouble, reading poetry, it's true, but I could read this, and I love the way you change alcoholic to alien, and she waits for the moon to change, instead of a traffic light. I wonder, though, about the best yet to come - on the way to a first meeting, I might expect a less optimistic viewpoint?

At a stoplight on some crowded
corner, you wait for the moon to change.

--really lovely line.

I like how this feels suspended, to me. It is poetic. I don't see anything to change. I think there is a nice balance of darkness/light.

I enjoyed this, Morgan-- the reversals of expectation are deftly constructed.

thanks, James, Marcelle, Gary, Marcy, Claudia and Carol for reading this one and sharing your ideas

Loved this tiny little piece.You wait for the moon to change. Wow! Beautiful and soothing and humorous.Multiple readings keep giving the reader more and more to aahhhhh about.

P.S. The only change I would make is to change light, speed, to simply lightspeed. It zips the image I think but either way I'm very much enamored of it.

Thanks for reading this one, Darryl. your comments are 'beautiful and soothing' and, if not humorous, good hearted and generous

I love this. Absolutely. I was reminded of the middle and end (my favorite parts) of Lorine Niedecker's When Ecstasy is Inconvenient. I particularly love the contrast between the expected end result of the AA program, sober normalcy, and lightspeed. Moon madness. Lovely.

At a stoplight on some crowded
corner, you wait for the moon to change.

Best line of the piece!

C. and T., thanks for reading.

and Caleb, thanks for mentioning L.N., I just now looked up that poem in the Collected Works edited by Jenny Penberthy, has been sitting on my shelf too long unopened

I read this a few days ago and returned to it because the thought in it stayed w/ me. I agree with the others who noted the exceptionalness of "wait for the moon to change." I'd also be happy if this were deep-longer -- not that the parallel alien universe must be extended -- but further probing of the "in" and "out" business.

I have tried AA essays and found it tough-going. ("Waylaid (1999)" is one title -- perhaps I'll put it up here, but the title is all I like about it.) A publisher (in AA himself) told me it's okay by the Traditions to write fiction re: mtgs. if it is fiction. But I want to tell you the true story so it flops.

hey ann,

post it.

i have an aa character in my telluride novel, btw

also, on this latest re-reading of a poem i like, morgan, that start of last sentence still not working for me (the light, speed i am fine with), but that best is yet thing--well, hmmmm. back to what marcy said, but for me the words themselves, too shiny with use? will keep thinking. my $.0002

oops, i just saw is already published, so forget all my above...!!!

Ann and Gary, thanks for good insights

I stopped at every line to let it soak in. Am I the only one who read the ending as maybe skeptical? "The memory of thinking in some other language" is so apt and not something easy to give up. (I have a feeling I'm reading these lines inversely. Might be my own love of drinking.)

Greedy girl that I am, I want twenty more segments because quickly you've made me care about the person going, the alien.

"not something easy to give up"
I hadn't thought of it in quite that way before. Nicely worded, Pia. Thanks for reading

I loved the immediacy of this, and the way it flowed so well from one line to the next and may I just say, you make such excellent use of commas and creating a final line that leaves an imprint.

Like others, I keep coming back to this to read it again, see how it feels this time. "The best is yet to come" doesn't feel overly optimistic to me -- it may just be something you tell yourself to go on. Once Darryl pointed out that the last word could be "lightspeed," I wanted it to be that -- but the two words, the comma, slow it down and make me stumble, which seems even more apt, contradictory, richer. This is really quite wonderful, Morgan.

thanks Roxane and Jürgen for your reading and comments. the responses here have helped decide it for this one, into the manuscript it goes

Aliens and earth people. I like the glimmer of hope at the end. And I love the "memory of thinking in some other language," reminding me of that high-school-graduation-trip to Paris.

Thank you, Wilmot, that's cool

Aliens Anonymous--that's the group for me. Nice little sketch with a cosmic ending.

thanks, William, for reading it

Aliens Anonymous, I love it! A wacky but strangely resonant approach to an otherwise bleak subject.

love this! so smooth--but draws me right back for the reread... i think 'beside yourself' is so key... usually it's used from the other direction, like you're outside your usual self, looking in.... like you have a sense of who you should be, in other words... but here it works differently: like you're wondering if maybe you should in fact be the self you've stepped into.... i agree w/ the Simic thought..... it's irresistible in that way....

thanks Kendra and Scott, for reading and comments

A very effective piece. The enjambments are wonderful here. Unsettling. I like this a lot.

thanks, Sam, for taking time to read and comment

Loved this piece. I agree with Roxane, stunning use of punctuation. Fav.

Isabell, nice to hear from you

thanks for commenting

Like this a lot, especially: "At a stoplight on some crowded
corner, you wait for the moon to change."

This is fantastic.

I just read this and had to tell you how much I admire it's quiet force. I like how

"The memory of thinking
in some other language, an attitude, an approach
towards Existence"

shifts the time and reminds you that the poem itself is a memory.*

Quite wonderful. Reminds me of my "Alien Registration Card" when I first got to the US.(Now the thing is less dramatically called permanent residence card or something like that.) *