from Sixty-One Discrete Movements for Book and Operator
56.
The books enable
Others are made
Like a pattern
That iterates
Through a domain
More of those books
Derive a proof
Of progression
Through their reference
To conditions
Created by books
Written before
The books exist
So they refer
To those old books
And name their place
Like conditions
That books imply
Dependency
That others made
To support them
Continue the trend
Of making books
To proper fields
And start again
51.
I make a book
About nothing
That important
An honest book
That is the point
Of this writing
To be honest
About everything
A good idea
I made a book
Another book
A book that’s based
On what I thought
It should say next
It moves along
With that in mind
Each word is
Approximate
To what it should
Should be about
The book I wrote
That sounds like this
Is full of words
That I picked out
As the next word
58.
A balanced book
On a small edge
Slowly leaning
Loses balance
And starts to fall
I watch the book
Tumble through air
And kick it hard
Into a wall
The book stands in
For every book
Because all books
Are the same book
There is one book
And it is bad
Then another
Comes after it
That’s also bad
Like numbers count
On forever
Though each number
Is the same one
Just one number
Out of many
In a long line
45.
The book’s a prize
It has clear rules
From which to judge
All the new books
And then rate them
But it also
Wins the prizes
It has rules for
The book was good
According to
The rules it made
Then it was bad
The book fell off
It hit the ground
And then I cried
But not for long
I didn’t care
It was just nice
To cry like that
Actually no
I’m embarrassed
Forget all that
And think about
About true things
And well-formed rules
42.
The book does good
For the whole world
When it’s written
With that in mind
And edited
Like a long day
That gets finished
At the moment
That it has to
Though over time
As it happens
Something changes
Unrelated
To the real book
And its contents
The world responds
The book does harm
More harm than good
Prevent the book
Just this one time
From attempting
To do one thing
So that the change
Is irrelevant
To the real world
54.
I read my book
I think it’s bad
I close the book
I don’t like it
I’m just kidding
Its pretty good
I want to write
Does that make sense
But don’t want to
Well it’s ok
It is working
I write each word
One at a time
After each one
To make a book
Based on the words
Inside the book
I close the book
Why am I sad
Why does it hurt
To write like that
I am so sad
Wait forget that
It is normal
It is like that
∩
Anastasios Karnazes is author of Rainbow Sonnets 20 and founder of Theaphora.