created 2025-05-27, & modified, =this.modified
rel:Wild Geese Returning - Chinese Reversible Poems by Michele Metail
Why I’m reading
Oulipo. I liked Wild Geese Returning - Chinese Reversible Poems by Michele Metail and am curious to read more from her.
Literally no clue what to expect here.
Composite figures (a man with a bird’s head, or antlers) can be found scattered in caves across Europe.
The 19th century had card fames, dominos and panoramas which could be combined to form new images.
Around the 1950s in France there was the invention of the “Portrait-Robot” (Identikit or Photofit Picture) used by police, where a combination of elements is used to outline to subject’s face.
This is true for words. Certain words by virtue of their polysemy suggest metamorphosis.
- the arm of a chair
- the mouth of a river
- head of a nail
The individual lines written on the strips of paper are progressively removed from the frame and dropped to the ground as the reading proceeds, symbolizing the deconstruction of the por- trait and the creation of a reservoir of phrases for a new assemblage. An endlessly open form based on combinatorics.
The Flaneur
HEAD IN THE CLOUDS PUTS HIS FOOT DOWN FLOATING VOTER SITS ON THE FENCE SLOW MOVEMENTS SWINGING ARMS ROVING HAND ROVING FINGERS LOST STEPS LAGS BEHIND THE OTHERS
