Ordeals
Ordeals of pleasure, ordeals of battle, ordeals of money, and ordeals of the mind
Ordeals of illness, ordeals of family, ordeals of couples, and ordeals of home
Ordeals of traffic, ordeals of disagreement, ordeals of job insecurity, ordeals of age
Ordeals of failure, ordeals of disappointment, ordeals of sensitivity, ordeals of entrapment
Ordeals of news, ordeals of empathy, ordeals of madness, and ordeals of death
Ordeals of dentistry, ordeals of cold, ordeals of heat, and ordeals of sorrow
Ordeals of therapy, ordeals of repression, ordeals of advice, and ordeals of loneliness
Ordeals of impossibility, ordeals of memory, ordeals of loss, and ordeals of fantasy
Ordeals of sleeplessness, ordeals of heartache, ordeals of triviality, and ordeals of fakery
Ordeals of inadequacy, ordeals of attention, ordeals of contagion, and ordeals of exclusion
Ordeals of misunderstanding, ordeals of honesty, ordeals of disconnection, and ordeals of effort
Ordeals of mistaken identity, ordeals of stupidity, ordeals of wrong turns, and ordeals of animals
Ordeals of wishful thinking, ordeals of bad dreams, ordeals of bad meals, and ordeals of rupture
Ordeals at the airport, ordeals on trains, ordeals in the bedroom, and ordeals in the rain
Ordeals of gender, ordeals of race, ordeals of friendship, and ordeals of nemeses
Ordeals every day, ordeals every hour, ordeals every second, ordeals for a lifetime
Ordeals of wars from before, ordeals of future wars, and ordeals of war every day
Ordeals of sad parents, ordeals of sad grandparents, ordeals of sad children, and of sad babies
Ordeals on the phone, ordeals in the street, ordeals in the courts, and ordeals in the kitchen
Ordeals like always, ordeals like this, ordeals like never before, and ordeals in hyper-dimensions
Ordeals of a vibratory kind, ideals of a sonic kind, ordeals of color, and of no color
Ordeals of speech, ordeals of silence, ordeals of tension, and ordeals of ceremony
Ordeals of the unshakeable, ordeals of entertainment, ordeals of the factory, and ordeals of appetite
Ordeals of the celebrant, ordeals at the station, ordeals of bureaucracy, and ordeals of ambivalence
Ordeals at the ocean, ordeals in bed, ordeals above the tree line, and ordeals of the page
interdisciplinary conference
a
poet and a neuroscientist go into a bar
the
poet asks the neuroscientist
what
is like like
who
answers
we aren’t there yet
but I suspect
‘like’ is like
insomnia
hesitancy persists
anxious politesse
like, are you sure?
a delicacy wrt
unconsciousness:
is this a good
idea?
why,
what is hunger like?
the
scientists asked the poet
the
poet says
it’s
like the inside
biting
you
Miranda Mellis is the author of Crocosmia (forthcoming, Nightboat Books); The Revolutionary (Albion Books, 2022); Demystifications (Solid Objects, 2021); The Instead, a book-length dialogue with Emily Abendroth (Carville Annex, 2016); The Quarry (Trafficker Press, 2013); The Spokes (Solid Objects, 2012); None of This Is Real (Sidebrow Press, 2012); Materialisms (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2009); and The Revisionist (Calamari Press, 2007). She teaches at Evergreen State College.