Scout Faller on Their Poem

In my work I continue to encounter the concept of a deal with the devil— this poem is a matrimony of the A24 film Pearl and my writing  and conversations in a workshop on Diane di Prima. In The Poetry Deal, Diane di Prima promises to give up “husbands, tribes and jobs as you wish” for the “raw, bloody meat you toss my way.” In 2022’s Pearl, the character prays to have her one wish granted, “[to] make [her] the biggest star the world has ever known.”

Who ensures fulfillment of such a contract? What if you give everything up, only to find that there’s no guarantee on the other end? What happens in the gulf between your estimation of your work and another’s perception? In that space of difference lies megalomania, psychosis, hysteria, and a paranoia that arranges itself psychically across Pearl’s Texan landscape.

A note about form: when directing, the Safdie brother’s “exterior sets were often left open, allowing real New Yorkers to walk freely through them.” When writing in the couplet form, the exterior is left open so the reader can walk freely through them.