David X Novak
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Pegged to the Mercy Tree since then,
The day thy spear first pierced me, Love,
Many a year thus has it been
But thou hast not released me, Love.




[Please read my Update Regarding Broken Links at this site.]

​My long poem, The Requiem, was published 20 years ago soon (it had been written in 1998). In the run up to that project, a coworker helped me create my first email account (hotmail). In order to facilitate transfer of files it was indispensable, and the book came out. I held back on publishing until October sometime, because it mattered to me that the the book carry a 2000 copyright date.

All such matters of concern strike me as trivial now; but in light of the Anthropocene what shouldn’t strike us trivial? Then, I was ambitious; now, well, not hopeless, but hopeful in a new direction.

What I mean is—literary questions aside—twenty years is more than enough time to spend in front of screens. My hotmail account was not my first occasion to set myself before a computer terminal by any means; I worked clerically as a data input operator often enough once I became an employable adult. But the creation of an email sets you in the mode.

Obviously, today, you can hardly exist without it (I will not shut it down); similarly online shopping—especially if you care for books—is virtually a necessity. Similarly to this website: shutting it down or refusing to post anymore would be a grandiose gesture, but unnecessary. What I wish to do is orient my life away from screens.

Poetry is often concerning the future as much as the past. Ten years ago—if not longer—my third collection of villanelles predicted this moment. You may seek out samples from my books at the Poetry page on this site. As of this writing, cheap copies are easily obtained of any of my Non Fit Press books, of which The Requiem was first published but not composed. (Embodiment and Release, followed by Sonnets and The Soul’s Refinement, all preceded it.)

The Requiem has a companion long poem—this one more carefully approximating an epic—but for The Resurgiad you must needs go to my page at Lulu.com. Only one play is available in book form, The Peony Pavilion, also there. For now, two other plays are up at this site gratis though I have considered pulling them. That said, welcome to my site; enjoy—insofar as you might—any of the work that you find here.

Time for me to turn away.
—August 5, 2019
Find me reading poetry on YouTube