Bob Perelman is a poet and Associate Chair of the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published over fifteen volumes of poetry, most recently Iflife (2006) and Ten to One: Selected Poems (1999). His critical books are The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary History (1996) and The Trouble with Genius: Reading Pound, Joyce, Stein, and Zukofsky (1994). He has edited Writing/Talks (1985), a collection of talks by poets.
I want to tell you simple truths,Reveal important things to you.Always open doors, step into elevators,Go upstairs, move down corridors.Always get into cars, start the engine,And if it's winter, wait…