Monday, January 7, 2019

Hannah Weiner


The late Hannah Weiner saw words, often on the foreheads of others, and these words helped her write her poems.  Poet Eileen Myles tells the story of being at a large loft party in NYC in the 70s where she saw Hannah across a crowded room and thought to herself (not saying it out loud), "I wonder if Hannah sees words on my forehead?"  Hannah abruptly faced Eileen and walked across the room toward her to say, "I see no words on forehead today Eileen."  There are many such stories from the poets of her time.

Please see this link to learn more about her.

Something unacknowledged in the writings about her is how these psychic abilities were a burden to her, and how she developed a deliberate obsessive-compulsive behavior to cope.  She writes about this herself very openly more than once.  In her opus CLAIRVOYANT JOURNAL (which you can read for free online at this link) she writes about her frustration at the words stalking her like a menacing force she needed to escape.  Here is an excerpt where she tells us of her counting technique to rid herself of the words:




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