Carla Nappi

In writing with Plato's "Diotima Questions Socrates" speech, I was interested in the relationship between Socrates's voice and Diotima's words, and in what happens when quotation happens, and in the consequences thereof. I've done a little informal reading of the resulting poem from Uninvited for you, in my pajama pants, sitting in my comfy chair, nearly 8 months into home isolation. I chose this piece in part because of the weirdness of voicing a poem that is so very visual in the book, and because of the weirdness of voicing in pandemic isolation. Spending many months at home by yourself, you can become weirdly estranged from your own voice, or warmly intimate with it, or it can seem to kaleidoscope away from you, or sink deep within your flesh. It depends on the hour, and on the day. Reading this poem made me want to do it again, many times, in many ways. We'll see how the winter goes... - Carla