Michael Basinski
This piece is a series of poems created by semi-chance
methods, tables and
with mistakes. As a performance poem the text demands
original forms of
chance presentations meshed and mashed with forms of
non-chance
presentations by solo or choral spoken and/or singing
voices and/or
instruments.
The organisms have been prepared and enhanced as follows
for easy and fun
filled analyses.
Preliminary results indicate that Howe uses the word ashram
more often
than Dickinson, and that she is fond of the word purple.
These poems are opems. They have multiple entry points.
Perform the text.
The pace of the presentation should range from a slow,
methodical attempt
at locating and reading fundamentalist (dictionary) words
and attempts at
making a sense to a form of inspired, spontaneous glossolalia,
which
simply uses the text as a guide. The presentation should
sway and shift,
rise and fall, and contrast between these two extremes.
Present the text
as seamless as possible.
A STEP 2: No poem is private property. Do print these
poems. Locate
multicolored markers, pens, pencils, and outline each
poem and each space
within each poem. Poreform the organisms into a nearby
pond and request
the engagement of St. Dick Higgens for whom this text
is an homage.