text messengers

WB Yeats

2011-01-17T05:08:00.000-08:00

No Second Troy (1916)

four questions in three quatrains

Why...? What...? Why, what...? Was there...?

all rhetorical, closed off, the last one close off by the title

(Was there another Troy.../No Second Troy)

Three of the four are in the final quatrain, the most questioning quatrain. The first quatrain is an unfinished question, the second quatrain is an end and a beginning of two questions, the third quatrain is the end of a question plus two further full questions.

Yeats exploits the English question structure, the question word at the beginning and the question mark at the end, also the implicit speech instruction in a question, that the pitch lifts at the end.

A question word demands in a reader a tighter gathering of language so that the questioning inflection is carried to the mark, the end of each clause must hover, as in any long sentence, but the relationship between beginning and end of a question is stronger than in a standard sentence.

In these long questions the question word controls the sense.

The first question begins

Why should I blame her that she filled my days with misery

Colloquially, the question 'Why should I?' is familiar. There are also gramatically full questions in 'Why should I blame her?' and 'Why should I blame her that she filled my days?', where the line breaks, leaning the sense over.

The word 'blame' splits the sense, as it is used both as a simple transitive verb from I-subject to her-object, and in the phrasal verb 'to blame that'. Here 'that' is a useful tool as it easily hinges the two clauses before allowing a double hinge of possibilities both branching from 'Why'. The conjuction OR is used to strengthen these hinging clauses, and functions alone when one of the possibilities splits in two:

(have taught.../or/hurled...)

When the question mark comes it is on the end of a subclause attached to one of these options, themselves branching from the double hinge stemming from the initial question word. This subclause also seems somewhat quotational, as if the mind of the speaker has wandered into the mind of his object. The one-line ideo-space of this subclause having hijacked the question mark is externalised to form the second question, the first and second quatrains' only strong stress rhyme (desire/fire) chiming with this semiotic leap.

This second question seems more contrived in its extension, a complex parallel here presented in two columns:

What - nobleness
made - made
her - a mind (hers - here connected to her with 'with')
peaceful - simple ('as a fire')

'What...?' is a different kind of question word, one that is a pseudo-tangible grammatical subject, an absent subject, here something that 'could make'. The poet unashamedly makes a semantic rule out of a grammatical construction, and finds something else that 'makes' - what does it make? Oh, the quality that we have observed in 'her' in the opening line of the quatrain, now defined in its third line. And what is it? Nobleness. Yeats exposes his backtracking artifice, the desire/fire rhyme hitting home the poem's construction (its 'making'). And it is a simile! There follows another: as... like... a kind... before we swing out of courtly poetry and return to earth with the one sentence prosaic line:

That is not natural in an age like this.

'an age like this' echoes and breaks the simile construction, and 'That is not' introduces the rational tone of the final quatrain, obsessed with the verb 'to be': 'is not... being... being... is...' until the final question is 'Was?'

(Post script - I will never be able to read this poem without hearing Sinéad O'Connor's 'Troy')

Leslie Scalapino

2010-08-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

this eating and walking at the same time is associated all right (1979)

Diane Sophia and Eileen Ostrow are name

rounded and arounded

surrounded by

society Leslie

Leslie Scalapino'll have a beauty fill space in 1979
Leslie Scalapino'd have a beauty filed space in 1979

people

how long the line at the

a list of the how long lines
but are they all (/all not)
what are controlling this? typewriter? typesetting? running into

people

running into prose?

the wordbreaks are telling

I ate and there should just be the person who was talking about ar-
chitects,

I'll have to know the person who was talking in a group and I need-
ed to form a close friendship with them.

I've changed my mind I don't think there's going to be a social hi-
erarchy

_________________________________________a social hi-

like earlier, I was serving (as)

a employee
a customer
a patient
a person who had a lot of talking to do

a patiently
a pat ently was a lot of talking to do

so that the next one smiles as if to say

you
a patient

or

you
and a

and a next one and a next one
and my nails are receiving
smiles as if to say

people

well they are twotone and green

Ulises Carrión

2010-06-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

for fans and scholars alike (1987)

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

: to give an example of my parameters, your parameters, our shared space, that alters, that repeats.

Here we have a book, is it a text?
In 'The New Art of Making Books' Carrión tells us:

In the old art the writer writes texts.
In the new art the writer writes books.

What is more meaningful: the book or the text it contains?

How to succeed in making a rose that is not my rose, nor his rose, but everybody's rose, i.e. nobody's rose?

By placing it within a sequential structure (for example a book), so that it momentarily ceases being a rose and becomes essentially an element of the structure.

Everything that exists is a structure.

In a book of the new art words don't transmit any intention; they're used to form a text which is an element of a book, and it is this book, as a totality, that transmits the author's intention.

In the new art you often do NOT need to read the whole book.

The reading may stop at the very moment you have understood the total structure of the book.

and then he says

The new art doesn't discriminate between readers;

He is writing in 1973, 14 years before this book

it does not address itself to the book-addicts or try to steal its public away from TV.

but this book is called

For Fans and Scholars alike

and Johanna Drucker tells us:

Carrión is intent upon showing the graphic language of book form and appreciating the aesthetic and rhetorical properties of these forms. Thus the call to attention for both fans and scholars, those who love the book form and those who use it.

perhaps because as Drucker puts it

This book is in the genre of self-conscious codex

It is aesthetic and the beautiful blocks that we read as images and yet, because of Carrión's conceit his concept, we simultaneously appreciate the image as mark of a block equal to smaller marks that are glyphs.

As with William Morris, the *image suggests depths but remains on a plain, remains a suggestion of texture that evokes texturally as the aisles of i evoke chorally and graphically and textually in as much as text is a concept and in as much as text is a structure. We may rewrite the earlier Carrión thus in light of his later artistic discovery:

How to succeed in making i that is not my i, nor his i, (nor Gertrude Stein's i) but everybody's i, i.e. (not the i in i.e.) nobody's i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

Juliana Spahr

2010-04-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

response (1996)

after 3 pages: response
response is 2 pages of introduction after 1 page: introduction
response is 18 pages of responding in 5 sections after 1 page: responding
response is 7 pages of thrashing seems crazy after 1 page: thrashing seems crazy
response is 5 pages of documentary after 1 page: documentary
response is 21 pages of testimony in 5 sections after 1 page: testimony
response is 21 pages of witness in 10 sections after 1 page: witness
after response: 1 page
response in response

introduction:
response is/& telling
response is/& approaching mass through patterns
response (as?) Satanist/victim/stalker/self/alien/collaborator/artist/poet
response (is?) awry
response (is?) fault of mind
response is/& plea - who/where to?
respond to Spahr here. Indicate words that are/signify/indicate the speaker's response:
"I am confused about what I believe or disbelieve. If I believed or disbelieved what to be or not to be as I remembered it or made it up or experienced it or dreamed it then what else or nothing else about my past or my present is true or false?"
response is/& formulation of aphorisms

introduction as response:
response is first a question
response is introduction is initiation is needle is sudden realisation
response incorporates vague (heard? read?) voices
response (Spahr's poetic) continues thought, restores thought from fragment, translates verbally non verbal communication in around under verbal communication/plea. This process, not formulation.

responding:
response is sectioned: is this sectioning temporal or spatial or conceptual? I: This is a place
response (Spahr's poetic) is unstable and blaming government/terrain is held with not blaming government/terrain for unstable language. This holding is stable and unstable and blaming and not blaming. It cannot bear (not even buildings). Is it a question or a statement.
response is thoroughly read by us
response is thoroughly read by us and the political content is noticed, subtlety is noticed.
response is culture
response is preferred
Mark Wallace in a review originally published in the Washington Review now here, observes Spahr's use of square brackets as 'markings [that] suggest specific images, but more significantly suggest that those specifics are more generic than specific. Paradoxically, the desire to control experience through a narrative that can give all things specific names leads to a circumstance in which the capacity to control through naming makes all specifics irrelevant.' These markings, as taught to us by Spahr as we progress, enable Spahr to point, so
____the question [role of art in the state]
points it does not do this
____the question is role of art in the state
and does poetic response to response mark
an unreal world called real because it is so heavily metaphoric
response is/& excess
response is these images
these examples of response
why do we respond resistantly to some images and not others
respond is/& refigure/refuse
respond (as?) return
Madame Bovery responds to Anna Karenina
in Spahr's [possible responses to what is seen what part of Spahr's images or Spahr's sentences are response, who in or outside of (then Spahr?) Spahr's images is responding: WHERE and WHO
response (as?) art
response gives or is given
response (as?) writing
what happens as response responds to response responding to response response response respond respond respond
claiming controlling possessing response
in response (Spahr's poetic) is this a formulation: stutter is nation
respond as/after question

responding as response:
response is a verbal trying to shed specificity
response offers up image and offers up to us image
response (Spahr's poetic) in relation to source
the danger of words on a page is that they are not photographs or video
the fear of not viewing video or seeing a photograph
the danger of seeing it in front of you
the fear of not seeing it in front of you
the plea of words on a page is that they are easily made
the plea is easily made
the plea is dangerously invisible
the plea is dangerously static
the plea is visible moving and safe

Craig Dworkin

2010-03-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

file (1999)

Dworkin's procedure provided by the source text itself.

Is the source text itself called

“How To Make Your Files Smile.”

or

“How To Make Your Flies Smile.”?

note in Dworkin's note: "retention of documents against the threat of litigation"

note sexual misconduct litigation

alphabetically filed list of vocabulary: 288 terms
perfectly arranged over two virtual four column pages
creating eight 36 term columns or 72 four term rows
or a matrix of 144 terms per page read simultaneously

automatic method is manual as in it is from a manual
to hand over a method hand over a job hand over work

I am a sexual ary
I am a sectioned ary
I am a secret ary
I am a sequence ary

some terms file into themselves poetically:
_______________________________us(age)(e)(ing)

I like this filing into itself
I like to file file into itself
I like to letter to letter:

angular larger

an angular arrange geographic

a an name each handler readable ease easier reading geographic cabinets same edges saves scored date efficiency year ready yet tab back keep pace emergencies see engineered definite errors set tabbed definitely you under ready-made establish hands sheets shelf facts show walking get tabbed departments side etc. called depend designated destruction Nationals sixth handy your

as in Dworkin's filing system from the manual, repetition is not allowed. This non-repeated result can be repeated.

To try and allow repetition in result, in a result that can not be repeated, I use Google. How does Google use these words? How does Google's filing system file the language of the secretarial manual? If the secretarial manual files language of business, will Google speak this language of business in its filing? I start with 'your'. I search 'your'. What is the first next word that Google gives? 'name'. I search 'name' and so on. I include punctuation that may separate each pair. This is just a beginning:

your name: the best is this some, a is the free and at or not! is a is the National and the office

Danielle Collobert

2010-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

survival (1978)

the first 4 lines of the english translation by Michael Tweed are

I time of what
the flood
wave riding a gaze
unflaggingly from I liquid marked red

I read word by word, line by line:

1
High time
The highest point of the poem
Me time. My time.
I time transitive
I time trans
I is an article
I is a particle
1 timing 2 timing
I is pronounced A
A is pronounced I
I is pronounced je
je is pronounced
time of I
time for I
Not I time what
I time of what
Not what
of what
genitive generating what
what genitive
what of it
what of I

2
the is an article
the is a particle
the is the
the is flood
time is flood
of what think
the flood

3
wave riding or reading a
gaze
he is a gaze
she is a gaze

4
a flag is a flood
unfloodingly and unflaggingly
relationships from of, of from
I text
eye liquid is tears or watering
the eye is aqueous marked red
blood is flood
liquid marked
lick is liquid
mark is marked

then return to the (english) title:

Survival
Ival
I something
I verb
sur is on
sur is on the poem
v and I
v and I and v
v is point
two vs are pointing
two vs are pointing to the poem
I is I
al is I
val is I
ival is I
vival is I
sur vival is I
sur is sure
sur is on is sure is title
entitle
on title
titling on
a title is a tile
tiling on a roof

everything is survival

This text messenger suggested by a presentation by Frances Kruk. Some notes from that presentation:

role of body in and as an I in writing body with no I

positing I as construct makes removal possible = body is construct

broken I = broken body

Jackson Mac Low

2010-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

light poems (1962 onwards)

I want to apply your slipping scientific to sound / poetic function / in light poems / in letters between Jerry and Jackson / lit (er all y) by I want to confirm your method says Jerry

_____________confirm your method

my method is light
my method is slight
my method 'sright sound

light is sound
lighter sound
light a sound

there is not slightly a semantic or chance in chancery reason or proposition in light

there is 2 a poetic function in light

1. letters between

planning I want / Light / locate light / well light / learned precisely what / trouble reply to / All Light / including kinds of light. / detailed, I light / list via letters / playing Light / last I'll to / mail I'd can't / locate I most / light / last provide a detailed / light / extremely time-consuming writingways / complications kinds list / light / playing Iris light / letters Light / I'll library not, / I'll I'll to / complicated I'd to / relearn files. time-consuming. / Love Diane time / Boulder. my Light / considerable I'll tomorrow / Library's still / place, I'll to / also time to / grateful reply to / hopeful I'm that / light / Holst, require list / light. / involved light / (minerals, I that / light.) / Light / simply light / light / early I went / along. kinds light / light / only I listed / light / playing item / column I lost / beautiful kinds light / lots my took / loft while went / L I've into / original I've trusty / last my at / --materials widely different / freely revised to / library Light / inclination simplify to / complicated I to / espcially I'm to / let-up delight / love right /

2. light poems

LIGHT / LOW LIGHT / light / student-lamp light / light / smoking-lamp Light / Magellanic light / lamp light / naphtha-lamp light / light / light / electric light / light / light / light / lamp kindly light / light / altar light / light / spotlight / solar light / Mustard-oil light / light / light / flare light / light / light / electric light / Light / student-lamp light / smoking-lamp light / light / lumination light / lamp light / light / light / alcohol light / lamp LIGHT / Old light / owl-light / opal light / small light / will-o'-the-wisp light / light / will-o'-the-wisp's light / delightful / delightful / lucence light / old light / owl-light / bulky, light / old light / old light / bulky, time / owl-light / only light / old light / old light / owl-light / opal light / old light / light / moonlight / whole light / light / light / emerald light / light / whole time. / light? / delightful / delightful / emerald light / will-o'-the-wisp? light / light? / will-o'-the-wisp. light? / oldest Why owl-light. / opal light? / old light. / cold light? / like light / usual Like light / cold light / Like what / fall light / reflected light. / whole I'm trying / bulky, light / variously 4.5 density / crystallized system.

Rosmarie Waldrop

2009-12-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

reluctant gravities (1999)

I must only collect one word or two words with mutual gravity. What do I mean by this, mutual gravity? It becomes relevant when I read, very early in Reluctant Gravities,

_____________________________________________________fall draft

and this I refract through the title Reluctant Gravities, and I think of falling and the fall and this draft and the second draft but I desist and resist from this list, this explaining and I list, I am listfull:

fall draft
works projects
featherbed __________________(I think of bedlock Waldrop On Marriage)
Gap gardening
legible_____________________________often it is the last word of a block that lingers
breed content
spongy nature
vanishing air
wide-open_______________________________a verb
fathoms_______________________________________last word
invisible burns
my years
sliding sidelong
print, lakes
grass gh
lark's soar
yesterday's gravity
even doubt
deep honey
a me
Sicklied o'er
pale cast
red wheelbarrow
fabled beasts
alien rock
manifest destiny
worry pivots_______________________later God is matter between noun and verb
screeching brake
cockadoodledoo
rawest thoughts
self-gravity
higher math
torn fragments
clogged highway
floating heat
tiny point
carrying blood
beginning skater
gap visible
roadbed
foothold
texts salt
slice breath
sprung reason
tight fit
fine fickleness
inherent wear
without shore
smallest gesture
common nucleus
double-binds

these are from the beginning but I would also note the final word of the last conversation, CONVERSATION ON THE MILLENIUM:

intestate

and back to explaining and listing I think of inter state and intestate is reluctant or is it indifferent as in _________________________________________________________So to slide down, so unutterably, so indifferent.

Stéphane Mallarmé

2009-11-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (1896)

a dice throw at any time never will abolish chance

The 'coup' of dice

_______of thought

propelling / casting / propulsion /

_______________________chancing

as space

___________as time

_______in between thought

the____in between thoughts

___________un roll a phrase

____________unroll possibilities of phrase

use ________________________________what is provided

____________here it is___________

____________spread________________

____page_____________page_________

Mallarmé:
___________'the [Page] being taken as the basic unit in the way that the verse or perfect line is taken in other works__________________other works

__________________other workings

between page _________ gutter _________ page

__________________gutter ___________ stars

1) position your fingers in between French and English translations in the same book and flick between - a linguistic movement

propulsion / on page / rolling over page

_______________________off page

off page to ______________

it is a line

__________even if a circle

it is too strong and short un coup not to push

____________________________forward and round

1969 Broodthaers replaces text with black strips
- if you cannot get hold of this version 2) blur your eyes or DIY

and what is these shapings this shape
what is it without its text

what is 'what is it without'
what is 'what is it with'
what is 'with'

Gertrude Stein

2009-10-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

lifting belly (1915-17)

'Lifting belly careful don't say anything about lifting belly.'

I will say something about lifting belly

The thing I will say about lifting belly is this lifting belly

how Stein plays with a handle/tag/moniker/name

or as Stein has it a title/tittle

than runs through this work lifting belly

running pursued by Stein

lifting belly is the protagonist of lifting belly

lifting belly protagonises Stein

degrees of knowing in lifting belly, one

knowing that lifting belly is called lifting belly

the fourth - lets call them lines - is 'All belly belly well.'

a silly billy mock-deflation of what to expect

tantalising tease of an entrance

once played is put away leading to the

casual/domestic/intimate drama of

What was it.
I said lifting belly.
You didn't say it.

And from there on our hero leaps and twists and flirts and skirts and is Ms Pronounced and is Ms Herd and is verb and is

act/action

and is add verb and is belly belly much add verb

lifting belly cuts through and joins together, cleaving and cleaving all Stein is hearing

Stein's hearing, one

language practice/one side of a telephone call, jumping forward to Kenneth Goldsmith's Soliloquy / magazine articles / pillow talk / teacher is talking / tittle tattle / cookery instruction / schoolbook / debate / quarrel

public - private - informal - intimate - formal

scenes shifting - line to line - time shifts - voice to voice - thought to thought - back and forth

Stein as experimental film maker

lifting belly is Stein's star and Stein's actor and Stein's act

Samuel Beckett

2009-09-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

what is the word (1989)

is described as Samuel Beckett's 'poetic last word' in David Wheatley's introduction to his Selected Poems. I cannot help but see, glimpse in it a fitting starting point.

and we may think of fitting and starting and pointing

In this series of 'text messengers' I want to closely look at the texts but not to linger, to straightway leap with them how far forward

the hyphen, dash in 'what is the word' as

parameter / absentia / reaching / seen but unpronounced / mark

referring, deferring

referencing, deferencing (to language)

pointing towards a 1990's poetics of disgust (the disgust of the 'folly'?) that points and cannot name

what where

this here

reaching towards the right word - the reaching is the marking as performance that is a reaching after language.

Also in the introduction, Wheatley points out the differences in the last statements of the English and simultaneous French texts. In French, 'comment dire- /comment dire' we may read as to question how even to say 'how to say'; where in English one possible reading supplies us with the quasi-conclusive 'what is the word': the word is what