And I claim that nothing is more important for a poet
than finding new ways to surprise people with the familiar.
Visit Grumman's Guest Blog to find his illustrations of poetic surprise; after a pair of visual poems, ten x ten and Ellipsonnet, he discusses a poem by Louis Zukovsky in which the poet describes his poetics using the integral sign from calculus:
∫
Zukovsky's definite integral (which Grumman tells us is carefully copyright-protected) has the lower limit "speech" and upper limit "music."Bob's posting provided me a challenge to complement his material with another poem that involved an integral. My search led me to a poem without mathematical symbols. It contains the word "integral" -- but its mathematics consists of permutations. And it considers politics, sex, and terrorism rather than poetics. This poem -- "Total Information Awareness" by John Beer -- is a pantoum, formed of quatrains whose lines are braided in repetition: the second and fourth lines of any stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the following stanza -- with the final stanza linked back to the first. Surprises abound as we read and recognize "I've heard that before" when we encounter repeated lines -- difficult phrases recurring, challenging our equilibrium and understanding with their altered context and meaning.
Total Information Awareness by John Beer
“This bubble had to be burst, and the only way to do it was
to go right into the heart of the Arab world
and smash something.” The hotel heiress, snapped
flashing her bum in a Bahamas club.
To go right into the heart of the Arab world,
they claim their device can trigger an orgasm:
flashing her bum in a Bahamas club
on a boozy date with her new bloke, Nick Carter.
They claim their device can trigger an orgasm.
American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
on a boozy date with her new bloke, Nick Carter,
say he confessed under torture in Syria.
American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
without touching a women’s genital area
say he confessed under torture in Syria.
“There’s no explanation why. We’re just not saying anything.”
Without touching a women’s genital area,
I take it all seriously. I am withdrawing from all representation.
There’s no explanation why. We’re just not saying anything
to make this objective absolutely clear.
I take it all seriously. I am withdrawing from all representation,
but he was in the special removal unit.
To make this objective absolutely clear,
the development of counterterrorism technologies—
but he was in the special removal unit.
This had profoundly shocked the commission,
the development of counterterrorism technologies
with the flick of a switch. Women get turned on.
This had profoundly shocked the commission.
No one detected any radical political views.
With the flick of a switch, women get turned on
to a new business model that only pretends
no one detected any radical political views.
I take it all seriously. I am withdrawing from all representation
to a new business model that only pretends
to give consumers more control. In fact,
I take it all seriously. I am withdrawing from all representation
that she refused to be photographed in body paint
to give consumers more control. In fact,
he was handcuffed and beaten repeatedly.
That she refused to be photographed in body paint
constitutes an integral goal of the IOA.
He was handcuffed and beaten repeatedly.
There’s no explanation why. An information whiteout
constitutes an integral goal of IOA
while Justice turns to Syria’s secret police.
There’s no explanation why. An information whiteout.
Forebodings of disaster enter into box scores
while Justice turns to Syria’s secret police,
constructing systems to counter asymmetric threats.
Forebodings of disaster enter into box scores
to achieve total information awareness,
constructing systems to counter asymmetric threats.
This bubble had to be burst, and the only way to do it was
to achieve total information awareness
and smash something. The hotel heiress snapped.
"Total Information Awareness" is from The Waste Land and Other Poems, Copyright © 2010 by John Beer. Reprinted by permission of Canarium Books.
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