Full Description
A collection of poems that contemplate the bureaucracy of the mind through interior political cabinets
Taking its name from the banal, purgatorial space outside (but inside) a doctor's office, Well Waiting Room imagines the conversations we have with ourselves at this liminal site as an exchange between interior bureaucrats, each of whom governs a particular aspect of the psyche. The poems explore the dynamics of this political ministry, which includes the Cabinets of Desire, Indulgences, Self-Preservation, Ordinary Affairs, Ambivalence, Confrontations, and many others—there's even a press secretary, a curator, and a general counsel. Like a cabinet of curiosity wrapped in red tape, the poems examine the compartmentalization of the mind and the confounding news of the day.
Formally, the poems range from dramatic monologues to combative sonnets, quippy memos to voice-y prose blocks, incantatory interludes to dreamlike visual landscapes. Sometimes, the poems address a purely internal conflict: Why do we lie to ourselves, indulge in schadenfreude, repeat the same mistakes? Other times, the poetic lens points outward like a spear, confronting the external universe: social injustice, polar ice melt, the Trump administration, and other man-made disasters. But in both universes, the poems find joy: the first observation of gravitational waves, the otherworldly beauty of rare marine species, the discovery that you are your own best way out.
For Schlaifer, the underlying question is an epistemological one, an ontological one, a theological one. Why are we here, how do we know things, and why does God—so often—seem to be working against us? In Schlaifer's bureaucratic vision of the mind, readers will see their own internal voices affectingly (and often humorously) reflected. The book traverses unknowable terrain in sturdy boots. It unearths not answers but better questions for our time.
Contents
The Ambassador of the Interior Has a Talking-to with the Minister of the Cabinet of Vengeance 1
A Member of the Cabinet of Culpabilities Challenges the Cabinet's Minister 2
Dictation from the Autocrat of the Interior 4
Open Letter to the Minister of the Cabinet of Denial (The Quick) 5
The Cabinet of Slippery Slopes 6
MEMORANDUM (We have to do it all again) 8
From the Cabinet of Counterweights & Measures 9
The Documentarian of the Interior Opposes the Bill from the Minister of the Cabinet of Nostalgia 11
The Cabinet of Ontology 12
From the Cabinet of Origin Stories 14
Response to the Minister of the Cabinet of Doctrines 16
From the Curator of the Interior 18
The Minister of the Cabinet of Self-Preservation 21
PSA from the Broadcast Service of the Interior 23
The Chamber of Chronicles 24
MEMORANDUM (Sublimation) 26
From the Archivist of the Interior (Make Yourself Great Again) 27
From the Outbox of the Minister of the Cabinet of Desire 28
At the Assembly of the Governing Bodies (Red Tape) 29
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Persuasions 32
From the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Teeth) 34
The Minister of the Cabinet of Indulgences Pardons the Minister of the Cabinet of Desire 35
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Equivocations 36
Response to the Cabinet of Definitives (Zoological Fantasy) 38
Riposte to the Cabinet of Consolations 42
MEMORANDUM (Ubiquity) 43
The Minister of the Cabinet of Bespoke Futures 44
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Admonition 46
From the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Well Waiting Room) 47
At the Assembly of the Governing Bodies, the Minister of the Cabinet of Oversight Makes a Motion to
Consolidate, and the Speaker of the House of the Interior Just Goes Along with It 48
The Minister of the Cabinet of Immateriality 49
MEMORANDUM (Withholdings) 51
From the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Whaling) 52
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Ordinary Affairs 54
The Cabinet of Lesser Offenses 56
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Retribution 58
From the Analyst of the Anterior 59
MEMORANDUM (Impasse) 60
From the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (No Man's Land) 61
The Minister of the Cabinet of Decorum 62
The Minister of the Cabinet of Covenants Argues with the Minister of the Cabinet of Desire 65
The Cabinet of Reason 66
The Minister of the Cabinet of Confrontations 67
The Minister of the Cabinet of Vengeance Issues a Decree 68
To the Cabinet of Ambivalences (UNANSWD/UNHRD) 69
From the Press Secretary of the Interior (Confirmed Reports) 71
MEMORANDUM (Overstory) 74
From the Cabinet of Survival Mechanisms 75
From the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Unremittingness) 76
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Reason (re: Your Indulgent Hopefulness in an Afterlife) 77
The Minister of the Cabinet of Disasters 79
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Natalie & the Waves) 80
MEMORANDUM (Verisimilitude) 83
Bulletins from the Cloud Cabinet 84
Rebuttal from the General Counsel of the Interior 85
From the Press Secretary of the Interior (Gravitational Waves) 86
From the Minister of the Cabinet of Unconsciousness (Lesser Animals) 87
Notes 89
Acknowledgments 91
