Recently in my ASTU class we’ve been focusing on language poetry from Juliana Spahr’s thisconnectionofeveryonewithlungs which reacts to the events of 9/11 in a pretty unconventional way. After reading her two poems I think there is a strong argument to be made that her work serves as a great example of non exceptionalist reactionary work that forces her audience to think in a way that Judith Butler would approve. Essentially, I feel like her poetry reacts to the trauma of September eleven in a way that combats an exceptionalist narrative by strives to connect people in their vulnerabilities instead of distancing them in there fears. Her two poems highlight the connection between people and the world which can be seen as an exploration of Judith Butler’s work on the body.

The first poem in the book uses repetition to slow down the audiences’ breathing and for me created the same sensation I feel when attempting to meditate in yoga. She begins almost every verse paragraph with “as everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands…” but adds on to the distances which creates a feeling of connection between the individual and the space around them. If you didn’t know in advance that the poem was written as a reaction to 9/11 you wouldn’t assume it to be about 9/11 because instead of emphasizing anger, frustration, or confusion it takes a moment to meditate on the connection between everyone with lungs. This ties in well with Butler’s work on the body. Butler posits that the conventional “us vs. them” narrative is inaccurate and harmful while explaining that the bounds of the self are more fluid than we realize. The idea that who we are is created by who we align ourselves with and who we deem an “other” creates the argument that reacting to trauma by attacking whoever you decide is the “other” is destructive. Although Butler’s argument seems unrealistic as a foreign policy agenda this poem puts her ideas to practical use, it reacts to a traumatic event not by lashing out but instead focuses on the inherent connection between everyone.

The second poem in the book explores the connection between ourselves in our most private moments, in bed for example, and how intertwined even in those moments we are with the harsh realities of our world. The poem juxtaposes the intimacy of a lover’s touch for example with the cold names of battle ships and missiles. As a reaction to 9/11 I think Spahr is emphasizing how connected we all are to horrific things that happen all around the world, even if we feel far away from it, because we’re all human and we all have access to the information. She doesn’t dwell just on the trauma of 9/11 but lists conflicts in Israel and Palestine and the AIDS epidemic. She makes a greater statement about our individual connections to outside world by contrasting those intimate and human moments with the experiences that we’d much rather forget. This too is an example of Butler’s ideas on the bounds of the body. The same idea that the world isn’t split up into “us and them” but that we all have connection that’s innately human is personified in this poem. Again when Spahr could seize the moment to lament on the exceptional loss of the American people she pauses to consider tragedy on a global scale and how we as individuals can connect to it.

Overall, I found Spahr’s poems to be almost an application of Butler’s theories on practical reaction to a real event. When given the opportunity to bolster the exceptionalist narrative that is so tempting during a time of grief Spahr forces her audience to meditate on what being human means as far as we relate to trauma. At first I thought her poems did little to accomplish anything but list off traumas we can’t prevent but when I applied Butler to her work I realized that she actually accomplishes a way to explore grief in a constructive manner that doesn’t dichotomize the “us and the them”. I must admit I hate poetry and usually on face value dismiss it but the works in this book impacted me in the same way that a lot of conceptual art impacts me. For the first time I felt like I experienced poetry the same way I would experience a Rothko or a Mondrian and for that I am super grateful!