Honestly

Honestly is an intimate, quiet, and unresolved little book about talking and listening.

It begins with research into a forgotten relative who was kicked out of the author's family after he was jailed for conscientious objection to WWII, and who then became an early member of the Living Theater. From there the poem swerves into a series of minor-key personal anecdotes, interlaced with conversations with friends about work and relationships. Throughout, communication is framed by the economics and psychology of the home. Dialogue takes place in close quarters--constrained by money, space, ego, and the blurry limits of empathy.