March 6: Obsession, Maggie Nelson, Section 13 from "Bluets"

Okay, so Maggie Nelson's book, Bluets, is all about blue things, feelings, places, experiences.  Obviously.  Nelson was/is obsessed with the color.

I understand obsession.  I think all artists and writers go through a series of obsessions.  That's what fuels our work.  Right now, I'm obsessed with Bigfoot.  Been writing Bigfoot poems for about a year-and-a-half.  Don't ask me why.  Sort of like Nelson in the passage below, I don't have a good answer. 

As she says, "We don't choose what or whom we love . . ."

Saint Marty is thankful tonight for Bigfoot.

Section 13 from Bluets

by:  Maggie Nelson

At a job interview at a university, three men sitting across from me at a table.  On my CV its says that I am currently working on a book about the color blue.  I have been saying this for years without writing a word.  It is, perhaps, my way of making my life feel "in progress" rather than a sleeve of ash falling off a lit cigarette.  One of the men asks, Why blue?  People ask me this question often.  I never know how to respond.  We don't get to choose what or whom we love, I want to say.  We just don't get to choose.