Reasons I love school.

Dear Anne Lamott,

My English professor is having us read your book, Bird by Bird for her class. I knew I was going to love every page when I read the following Phillip Lopate poem you quote on page 11:

We who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting,
as a group,
the devise ways 
to keep you
in perpetual anxiety
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want 
nor cutting you adrift.
Your analyst is
in on it,
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband;
and we have pledged
to disappoint you 
as long as you need us.
In announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves.
But since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community
of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center,
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective.


Thank you for your witty perspective on writing, and for the reminder that we are all perhaps a bit narcissistic at times.

Brittany