READING, LISTENING, ASSEMBLING

I write each poem out loud. The act of writing for me always involves recitation (and sometimes even digital recording) as I listen for ways to adjust the rhythms, the shifts in register, or the leaps between disparate language games. The Polymers is a new reading experience for me because of its relatively elaborate conceptual framework and also because of the important presence visual elements have in the book. Large images of molecules and visual poems have become fundamental components of my reading style as I evoke the manners and measures of the scientist presenting his unconventional research for audience scrutiny. I think of my readings as performances, as outlandish lectures by the preternatural Pataphysician bearing diagrams and charts. I’ve always loved giving readings. Such occasions make it possible for the book of poetry to become a more complicated piece of art as it reaches into other aesthetic dimensions. I’m hoping soon to acquire some recordings of the readings I have given so far – if I’m lucky, I might discover alternate configurations of performance possibility, some new molecular arrangements.