Were I to Write …

Five posts a day, I always thought that was right. Five posts – like the five prayer-times of Islam, and for what? To write? Quote from who knows where in Duras: ‘To write is an attempt to know what we would write were we to write’. Were we to write, yes exactly that. Were I to write: but what would I write?

I’ve think italics are a way of setting fire to words, not of burning them up, but softening their edges. To burn, to soften – what kind of fire is that? Italicised words (the ones above) seem to lean forward, as if by the pressure of a breeze. Where is the wind blowing? Forward, across the words. Across them – these words, as they lean into what I would write were I to write.