What I’ve Been Reading This Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two books that come directly from Bob reading poems on The Line Break<\/em>. Hey, speaking of, we have a new episode this week, talking to Mckendy Fils-Aim\u00e9<\/a> (Apple<\/a> | Spotify<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>). It’s a fun episode! Pick up Mckendy’s book<\/a> when it comes out. These two books? That I read this week? Great stuff. Both deeply rooted in places far from where I live and experiences wildly different from my own. Both displaying a command of the art form that is absolutely aspirational. I’m talking, of course, about Nebulous Vertigo<\/em> by Belle Ling<\/a> and […] <\/em>by Fady Joudah<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nebulous Vertigo <\/em>by Belle Ling: <\/strong>the world of this book is a place I want to spend a lot of time in. It’s imaginative and a touch ethereal, but still firmly rooted in the world. These poems remind me a touch of Wallace Stevens, though I probably haven’t read enough Wallace Stevens to honestly make that comparison. This is an inventive book, a book that reminds me of what really creative writing looks like. The words splay across the page, the lines break at surprising time, there is constant music. There’s also a lot I don’t get simply by virtue of not being able to read Chinese characters, but it’s a welcome feeling of unfamiliarity. I’m ready to go on whatever journey Belle Ling wants to take me on, you know? <\/p>\n\n\n\n […] <\/strong><\/em>by Fady Joudah: <\/strong>there’s that old bit, usually gets attributed to David Foster Wallace, about two fish swimming. An older fish swims by, says “hey fellas, how’s the water?” and then swims off. One of the fish looks to the other and says “what the hell is water.” The water, for these poems by a Palestinian-American poet, is having your people be subjected to unending existential threats\u2014including bombing campaigns, deliberate efforts to starve people, and wishy-washy politicians and media who “gotta hear both sides” about genocide. These poems, though, are not all blood and trauma. These are poems<\/em>. Real life is lived in these poems, real pain is felt, and those who survive keep on doing, y’know, the things that living entails. The end of the world is never quite as final as it feels in the moment. How do you persist? Well, Fady\u2014or Dr. Joudah, I should say\u2014has written six collections of poetry while also practicing internal medicine and raising a family in Texas. A person does not emerge unscathed from having such a target on their back, though, and the way that pain emerges in these poems is only shocking if you’ve lived in the relative comfort of never being at risk for being bombed. This collection is incredibly moving while also being really, really good poetry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? Seems appropriate to listen to FUPU on May Day. Yeah, it’s age-restricted on this site. It seems like every video of them is. Is it the fuck word? Or is it YouTube suppressing a Marxist band composed entirely of Black women? <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"two](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7212-1024x768.jpg\")