What are footnotes? They are appendages - subordinates - minions, even, to the text itself. Mostly they seem untroubled by their humble position. Occasionally, though, a footnote will erupt with a kind of violence, eager to break out of its ignominy and offer something more than a doffing of the cap. These footnotes have something else to say, and they will find their way to say it. These are the foot-notes that make up this book. Footnotes is a series of riffs and meditations on human life and culture, with a particular interest in the play of meaning and sound. These notes aspire towards the condition of poetry, running the gamut from the profane to the sacred, from the sublime to the ridiculous, and from the perfectly clear to the profoundly obscure. These are poems. But they are more than poems. They are footnotes that have broken loose. They deserve your most loving attention. They demand it.
