.

Frédéric Forte, Plutonisme, (Instruction 1)

Sean Pessin, Untitled, (Instruction 37)

Paul Fournel, Sans titre, (Instruction 8)

Guy Bennett, A destiny manifest?, (Instruction 22)

Nicolas Tardy, Sans titre, (Instruction 28)

Kevin Thomas, Untitled, (Instruction 37)

Philippe Annocque, Sans titre, (Instruction 58)

⇓   •   ⇓

PLUTONISME

1 : Un poème en une seule unité (lettre / mot / vers / strophe).

• Frédéric Forte

[Obtenu après réduction à l’unité des lettres de l’énoncé « un poème en une seule unité » : u – n – p – o – e – m – s – l – i – t, lettres qui, associées, ne peuvent donner en français qu’un seul mot : plutonisme, à savoir une théorie géologique obsolète selon laquelle les roches ignées formant la Terre seraient issues d’une activité magmatique intrusive qui, graduellement et de façon continue, aurait altéré, érodé des roches qui se seraient ensuite déposées sur les fonds marins où, sous l’effet de la chaleur et de la pression, elles se seraient reformées en couches sédimentaires ; ce qui constitue une assez bonne description du procédé mis en œuvre ici pour écrire le poème.]

UNTITLED

37: Plans for a poem.

• Sean Pessin

Try not to end on a poignant line where

the central metaphor of your poem is complicated

By the surprise of a sensuous observation.

Instead, place the incredulous flavor of your tears

Or the bold color of the blood issuing

from your gnawed-on tongue in the middle,

where sandwiched adjectives stack like cow langue in

numerological relevance. The beginning can

Be from anywhere; no one knows a poem

in the first line, but if your readers don’t

know it by the middle or they suspect

that they don’t know it by the middle

They might not think the poem

has anything to say. By the end,

the reader should suspect

the poem has something to say;

the suspicion must occur earlier.

⊗

SANS TITRE

18 : Un poème comprenant l’expression « voir rouge ».

• Paul Fournel

Ayant terminé la bouteille de blanc

Il vit rouge

⊗

A DESTINY MANIFEST?

22: A three-part inverse serial poem: synthesis, antithesis, thesis.

• Guy Bennett

1 : c

Certain non-non-white US-ians

are oblivious to history and irony impaired.

2 : b

As if non-non-white US-ians have not been

forcibly replacing non-white ex post facto US-ians

since the 17th fucking century!

3 : a

Certain non-non-white US-ians actually fear

non-white US-ians will replace them.

⊗

SANS TITRE [extraits]

28 : Un poème qui, paraît-il, traite des apparences.

• Nicolas Tardy

invite le spectateur à une expérience

une pancarte énonçant au delà du contexte

la potentialité des différences dans

effets de textures et variations chromatiques

à partir d’une grille tracée au crayon

*

pratique artistique aux contours évanescents

est une concrétion d’idées marquée par une

véritable connivence des dimensions

révélant un certain malaise sous-jacent

se retranchant dans des lieux privés ou déserts

*

en attendant de le découvrir de visu

de belles matières colorées qui imprègnent

la manifestation de la plasticité

artistes conjuguent et jouent avec les contrastes

pour mettre en lumière de multiples visages

*

à travers l’expérimentation des limites

une artiste trace d’un geste des figures

qui occupent cet espace incertain fait de

la multiplicité des représentations

et des conventions graphiques des magazines

*

un très grand objet sculptural qui est l’artiste

ne se contente pas d’accumuler tout ce

qui peut devenir une partition incluant

la matière noire et brumeuse du fusain

l’humour qui caractérise sa réflexion

*

déchirant des pages de bandes dessinées

lanceurs d’alertes ont pu révéler les moyens

que nous avons pris l’habitude de nommer

qui se subdivisent en formes fractales sur

les dernières productions connues de l’artiste

*

l’observateur formé à l’investigation

fait apparaître un grand nombre de scenarii

pour sculpter des œuvres dont le contour évoque

alors mise en scène spectaculaire d’une

figure de l’artiste dans son atelier

*

dans son travail sur la visualisation

artiste voit ses monochromes comme des

modèles d’une carte de navigation

destinée à jaunir avec le temps qui passe

sur le sol en dehors de toute référence

*

sur la toile la notoriété grandissante

par ses dimensions évoque un lit parental

sur lequel se jetterait avec frénésie

peinture acrylique rouge tirant sur la

volonté de rendre visible mécanismes

*

les recherches picturales et conceptuelles

conduisent vers un pigment de couleur gris taupe

qui traverse les derniers récits modernistes

où la tonalité juste naît de la manière

dont on ressent la puissance d’une décision

*

les personnages ne vieillissent pas à vue

consistent en des cubes de mousse recouverts

par un mapping de collages combinatoires

revenant sur la nature de ces images

grands aplats sont peints sur des papiers d’emballages

*

un tissu institutionnel artistique et

une pratique placée sous le signe de

recours aux logiciels de retouche d’images

avancent au fil de la singulière carrière

comme sortis d’un costume de carnaval

*

une image insaisissable fait vaciller

la polysémie sur une photographie

outil habituellement analytique

éliminant l’usage du pinceau et du

mélange peinture à l’huile et eau de javel

*

la caméra bien mal camouflée au milieu

qui se tourne vers des matériaux nouveaux comme

devant un drap blanc tendu à la verticale

au sein du musée ou de la galerie d’art

influe sur le comportement des visiteurs

*

nature tridimensionnelle ne suffit pas

constitue un ensemble significatif

formel et iconographique qui s’inscrit

de partie à partie et des parties au tout

relève du domaine de l’imaginaire

*

mouvements des rideaux indiquent de la vie

offraient un cadre rassurant et familier

testant les potentialités du all-over

on dépose régulièrement du pigment

lors de la séance photo préparatoire

*

certains mouvements ont été sélectionnés

accueillent le visiteur en présentant une

surface lisse des côtés versus rugueux

l’essentiel réside peut-être davantage

dans des effets de moiré dans la mise en crise

*

se contenter d’une photographie frontale

et jusqu’où son corps peut physiquement aller

consiste en une salle blanche dans laquelle

corps servant encore d’interface iconique

est un fragment dans un univers de couleur

*

l’alliance des mots aux choses de l’idée à

des bandes horizontales de couleur unique

laisse transparaître les enjeux plastiques et

affecte la perception que les spectateurs

absorbent et dynamisent simultanément

⊗

UNTITLED

37: Plans for a poem.

• Kevin Thomas

poem title: APRIL or april or April. alternatively, use the numbers on the right side of the sonogram as the title.

the body of the poem would mirror the body of a pregnant woman. not would, not could – will. It will mirror the body of a pregnant woman. plan to write the poem, not to merely plan the poem.

first stanza: 3 lines. each line moves time forward. no adverbs. no commas. no, commas are acceptable, but no widows or orphans.

(If the poem begins in november, and each stanza is a month = 6 stanzas to get to April.)

[note to self: before writing the poem, you should interrogate your feelings of loss. that feeling of never having a thing. of never knowing until knowing became synonymous with misplaced longing. i can barely think coherently about the story (as if there’s a linear space where it would make more sense. some other temporal reality i could/can inhabit while writing the poem. a linear past that starts with miraculous inception and ends at a communal table on the patio of a restaurant in venice. {not the venice that’s sinking, the venice that is now the land of tech bros.} we sat across from each other and we both cried ugly. we tried again, to be together, but the missing piece was too hard to replace. you should get the timeline straightened. then you can layer images on top of feelings, emotions bolted down to physical landmarks across the los angeles cityscape. massive rivets on the underside of your constructed memories. and then there was the call i answered in tacoma, wa, at my grandparents’ house — thanksgiving, possibly.).]

second stanza: 5 lines. ask krystle about appropriate rhyming scheme for second stanza. or, should this be a poem free of constraints? or, a progressive rhyming scheme that builds with each stanza but is forgotten in the final third of the poem?

[note to self: 3 stanzas, max. you should really nail down the timeline. 1st, there was the immaculate miraculous conception. no, first is cervical cancer and localized radiation, then, months later, conception. 2nd, break up. 3rd, cancer comes back. 4th, false negative pregnancy test. 5th, coffee at urth in b hills where i hugged her and was the closest to my __ that i would ever be. {name the object, in the realized poem. name the name.} 6th, the tacoma call about a procedure she was scared to go through with ➙ the confusion about her fear around a routine cancer-related procedure ➙ her admitting feeling alone, scared ➙ how to reframe the past with future knowledge? 7th, the meeting on the patio in venice where we cried oceans, sat on the beach afterwards, watched our waves. 8th, sonogram in email ➙ subject line “it’s a girl”.]

third stanza: 8 lines. an apology. both ways, my explanation and me asking for forgiveness. an infinite amount of lines. if faith is the constant act of reaffirming belief and progressing in your understanding of whatever higher power you’re aligned with, this stanza is the inverse, an eternal work of defining the reasonable reasons why April became a name and not a month housing a due date. there is no faith here, only concrete definitions and facts.

[final note to self {i promise}: is it worth recounting my post-knowing drop into despair? a drunk call to a friend at 2am from the corner of 2nd and los angeles before or maybe after an attempt to sober up with thick ramen before driving home. the assurance from the other end that it would be okay. the eventual break down on the floor of the church off fountain in hollywood beneath the long shadow of the blue scientology worship center. the way the person sharing at the front seemed to be speaking directly to me. the falling to my knees. the futile effort we made to try again, still trying to replace or recapture what we had before the before was knowable. to put something back inside.]

after the third stanza, one final line: i named her April — 4/?/11

⊗

SANS TITRE

58 : Un poème alternant pléonasmes et oxymores.

• Philippe Annocque

Cette page blanche d’écriture

sera-t-elle ce poétique poème

où je m’évertue en dilettante

à alterner par roulement

oxymores pléonastiques

et pléonasmes redondants ?

Sean Pessin, Untitled (Instruction 34)

Joachim Sené, Acclamatoire (Instruction 1)

Ian Monk, Untitled (Instruction 25)

Judah Abendsonne, Nachmittags Vogelschweigen (Instruction 48)

François Le Lionnais, Dix minutes de vacances (Instruction 17)

Deborah Meadows, Untitled (Instruction 37)

Lewis Carroll, Facts (Instruction 31)

⇓   •   ⇓

UNTITLED

34: A poem imagined but never written down.

• Sean Pessin

In a poem never written down,

There is a metaphor for dreams themselves

And with meters that measure the same

by any regional tongue, no matter how it’s licked.

With sirens in every one of the poem’s syllables,

every period is a cannon volley.

Containing a word that rhymes with orange,

There is nothing trite about its wartime observations.

This poem makes you lonely for loneliness.

Your veins retract with your chortle when someone gets to that part.

In every other poem, there is a reference to this one,

Unless there isn’t, but the lack is audible.

No one has to issue an apology for reading its loveliness

Into loudspeakers at funerals, matriculations, or bachelorette parties.

You memorized this poem once, actually. It’s been rattling around

Since the first metaphor that caught you off guard.

There is only one apology for this poem never written down,

And it is that you are still not writing it down.

*

UNTITLED

34: A poem imagined but never written down.

• Sean Pessin

The poem never written down happens in what is elided by

Takeout order emails sent over a private server

And their incomplete subject lines.

Though it is also possible that the poem is waiting in perfection

As a spam bot sent it straight to your junk mail;

A survey suggests, just as you open up,

“Security alert

“Improve your heart health

“Limited-time only

“You’re invited to a special screening

“Don’t miss out on our

“Collaborative and collective act of resistance

“Protect yourself from scammers

“Get a load of these

“Annual filing notifications

“Love is all you need

“Action required

“A new payment method was

“The best compliment

“Your statement is ready

”

⊗

ACCLAMATOIRE

1 : Un poème en une seule unité (lettre / mot / vers / strophe).

• Joachim Séné

ou poème générique & collectif, dédié à toutes celles & ceux que je chéris, que j’admire, que je porte en moi, depuis les grands & grandes de l’Histoire de la Littérature & de l’Art, jusqu’aux ami.e.s avec qui je brocarde & jacasse à tout sujet, à la famille qui m’accompagne & me soutient, à toute personne que je peux croiser ne serait-ce qu’un instant, un seul, & partager, la plus petite unité de temps & d’humanité qui puisse être (un signe de tête, un bonjour de loin, un coup de klaxon agacé, une dispute au sujet du dernier Prix Goncourt), à toutes & tous, ce poème : Acclamatoire.

Ô !

⊗

UNTITLED

25: A 100-line poem in which the words “peony,” “nightingale” and “firefly” appear only once.

• Ian Monk

The words peony, nightingale and firefly

will appear only once in this poem

despite its focus on several promising themes

such as the varieties of herbaceous perennials

which include this flower among others

for example mint and potatoes

surprisingly combining in this way

the uselessness of beauty and dinner

or else ferns and grasses forming

the lawn you sit in front of having

a well-earned drink before your

meat and potatoes, carrots and peas

covered by succulent home-made gravy

followed perhaps by apple pie and cream

all washed down by a rather tannin-

steeped bottle of Côtes du Rhone red

first and then white with the dessert

before being rounded off by a cup

of the most excellent Italian espresso

and why not while we’re at it

a generous shot of a good grappa

though eschewing the once inevitable

cigar which you find quite frankly

baffling and have never known

how to smoke finding the urge

to inhale practically impossible to resist

and so failing to see the point of it all

compared quite simply to a cigarette

anyway where were we oh yes

finishing dinner and staring once more

out of the window this time across

the now barely visible lawn glistening

slightly in the moon- and starlight

it’s just the sort of evening which

seems to invite the writing of an ode

or some such romantic form

the kind of thing poets like Keats

wrote during Autumn or when

gazing at the patterns sculpted

on a Grecian urn or else at times

of indolence just like this slightly

alcoholised moment on a spring evening

which incites a vague feeling of

melancholy despite all the clichés

concerning this particular season

of the year especially in the city

of Paris where this season is put

on a distinctly undeserved pedestal

let’s go for the psyche then especially

in the absence of any birdsong for

example which, if there were any,

would be drowned out by the constant

hum of the cars as well as

the clanging of the passing trams

and so what is my psyche or

in other words the totality of my

conscious and unconscious mind

doing right now? nothing much

apparently although that inner

voice of course never shuts up

for a single second spouting as

it does any amount of bullshit

when it doesn’t have anything

concrete to bite on so to speak

or to fall onto to put it another way

that voice which starts up according

to research around the age of six

and then never stops until you

croak (and maybe not even then

who knows? well, we all will

find out some day sooner or later)

while younger kids and animals

spend large amounts of time

thinking quite literally about nothing

just like any random insect crawling

across the floor that ant there

for instance, or outside, adding

to the moon- and starlight

but above all urban glow, the slight

glimmer of some beast or other

lightning bugs maybe, after all

you’re no entomologist far from it

but one thing you do know is that

these lighting effects are not there

to look pretty nature has no objective

use for such a thing as aesthetics

but instead are what is called

an “honest warning signal” like

the bright red colour of the granular

poison frog to warn predators

that the beast in question is either

venomous or quite simply disgusting

even for the hardiest of palates possessed

by all those ravenous creatures out there

and so the evening dims into night,

time for languishing before the non-ending

of a cancelled series on TV maybe

or else the actual end of something

so confusing that it lost you long ago

as thoroughly as it did its protagonists

⊗

Nachmittags Vogelschweigen

48: A poem in which the speaker doesn’t speak.

• Judah Abendsonne

⊗

Dix minutes DE VACANCES

17 : Un poème qui cherche à donner l’impression de la couleur jaune.

• François Le Lionnais

Vers le milieu des vacances je pense au jaune

L’instant où le jaune apparut dans l’univers

La quantité totale de jaune contenue dans l’espace

(Cas particulier : à l’intérieur de mon corps)

Le jaune et certains nombres remarquables

Le jaune et les bronzes Chang

Le jaune et quelques boulons dépareillés

Le jaune et le problème de l’existence du néant

Le jaune et l’attaque des pions perdants

Le jaune au-dessous du Zéro absolu

Le jaune : internationalisme ou cosmopolitisme ?

Le jaune et le renouvellement du roman policier

Le jaune et les sensations viscérales

Le jaune et elle

Le jaune du point de vue de Sirius

Le jaune d’un point de vue plus humain

Le jaune dans du jaune.

Un peu de repos

Et je me penche sur une autre question.*

* Ce poème anticipa son instruction.

⊗

UNTITLED

37: Plans for a poem.

• Deborah Meadows

Out of hibernation, rabbit brush (common name: Chamisa) now formed a yellow-lined road against blue sky at this altitude, our altitude. It marks opening of the school year, but not all are ready to let go of summer, descend from mountains. Were this in the haiku tradition, all would know the reference to season, that the rabbit brush bloom and opening of the school year coincide. So, it could be reduced to:

Rabbit brush: yellow

road against blue altitude;

summer’s end, descend.

⊗

FACTS (from Useful and Instructive Poetry)

31: A poem-telescope.

• Lewis Carroll

WERE I to take an iron gun,

And fire it off towards the sun;

I grant ’twould reach its mark at last,

But not till many years had passed.

But should that bullet change its force,

And to the planets take its course,

’Twould never reach the nearest star,

Because it is so very far.*

* This poem was written in anticipation of its instruction