the lower body 337conscious. The Lower Body’s alleged unconcern is debatable along
similar lines. One who is truly unconcerned doesn’t write—unless one
writes for the money, but Lower Body poetry is financially even more
unmarketable than most other avant-garde texts. In fact, Lower Body
poetry does display a palpable concern with not just the horrors of a
time of radical social change but also its pleasures. But the crux of the
matter is poetry’s ability to be about something else and yet, as an arti-
fact, be about itself and draw attention to itself: to connect with others
and yet stand alone. Lower Body poetry happens on the interface of
its rootedness in the reality of its surroundings and art’s right to be
elsewhere. It couldn’t do without either.
Figure 9.5. “Running Wild on a Crash-Hot Road”: Shen Haobo’s “Record of a Head
Shave” (Poetry Vagabonds 1 [2001]: 12)