In April I wrote a series of Indeterminacy poems inspired by John Cage and my studies of Black Mountain College.
The following are the ten poems I wrote:
1.
Facts
are not important to John Rice but
Rather how you hold them.
Caress them in the quiet house until
leaving
is no longer an option.
Stop
aim in the direction in front of you an
arrow. To create as an act of worship
there are gods before you.
shooter bow target
[centering]
without the other none can fully exist.
The deer stay alive.
Two months
or less to decide
how my Education has
experienced me.
Dewy said Conclusions are not endings
but pauses.
Still must “ready” come before
forward?
Aim forward, change.
Aim forward
change. Relax.
Consider it all
an experiment.
2.
In the hospital
systems fail
in phases.
95.
He keeps time
still
wearing a wristwatch.
3.
The country of Nepal now requires hikers
to bring 18 pounds of trash
off Mount Everest
The frozen artifacts include:
but are not limited to
air canisters
food scraps
hats
gloves
Human bodies
the conquering of
The Tallest mountain
in the world
is complete.
There is a garbage
dump at the top of the world.
4.
They say, “Don’t meet your heroes.”
Bob Creely’s biographer
was disappointed wrote
a scathing review.
Perhaps he could not see it
because he was not
looking close enough.
5.
Where does boredom reside?
The internet creates a
closeness
to those who
match our needs but
intimate distance.
How many kisses are sipped
through laptop screens
ignored by the next
scroll?
Which is more important
the content or form?
Every morning it is someone’s job
to
turn the world
on.
6.
If something is boring
do not look
longer
look closer
multiplicities you can not
imagine
reveal themselves.
7.
One afternoon two music students
were rehearsing John Cage’s “Living Room Music”
“Let’s add a horn,” one student
said. “It sounds better that way.”
The second student, a purist of sorts, was
concerned, “It sounds better because it’s pitched.”
“Listen,” the second student said.
“There is music always around us.”
From the hallway the bickering
murmured melodies.
8.
The other day
a young girl went to the
hospital with an awful
rash.
Her skin was flush red.
The doctors couldn’t figure out
what was wrong.
They later discovered an allergy to
Red Dye 40 cannot be treated with
pink Benadryl.
You cannot fix the
problem with what makes you
sick.
9.
There are thirty people in the
Black Mountain College course
at UMaine
Poets
Dancers
Philosophers
Teachers
and those who’ve yet to
shed their cocoons,
if at all.
The people they talk about in class
are now foundations.
“Careful,” the professor says,
“If one of you becomes famous
we will be footnotes in your
history.”
10.
In the early days of Black Mountain College they
used found materials because in the Great
Depression creative expression was
sparse and expensive.
At one point some artists made machines intended
to break.
There is beauty in malfunction.
Today, they make cell phones
Among other things
to break.
That way nothing is permanent.
You can always buy a new
tomorrow.
Dani Walczak 