The Steps by Rae Armantrout
Now we pay attention to attention.
The Steps
1. I take a step back and it’s like dancing. But what would it mean to “return to my roots”? Is that what the flowers do in September? 2. Kids earn money and love by being themselves on YouTube. “It only works if it’s authentic.” Was it better when enthusiasms had objects— such as distant wars or tulips? Now we pay attention to attention. Take a step back, and it’s like dancing. What would it mean for attention to be empty as a phrase repeated too often?
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Originally published as "The Steps" The New York Review of Books, April 23, 2020. Copyright © 2020 Rae Armantrout
Reprinted with permission.
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"How Much of Love is Attention?" asks Chloë Bass in her Wayfinding series (visual art).
It's interesting that the speaker sounds a little cranky, "Was it better...?" questioning ideas about how we frame identity, our enthusiams, the project of attention, how we actually use words. But really, the question at the end is more subversive, calling us back to think about what's "just song & dance", where we are on "the stuff" vs "fluff" continuum, as Richard Lanham puts it in the Econ of Attention. A fun brain tickler!
Distant wars or tulips. Important poem for any time, but especially for now. The power in single steps