Tuesday 31 January 2017

poetry 2017 / 024

Composting Words

I got into an argument
at the polytechnic library
where the lady on the counter
wouldn't let me borrow a book
on Tom Phillips, artist
(I met him once, an interview
for my undergraduate thesis)
who make concrete poems from old book pages.

“It's a disgrace,” she said,
glancing through the pages
“to desecrate a book like this.”
and wouldn't listen to me pointing out
the doctored novel was out of print
and stocked nowhere but remaindered shelves
of down-at-heel bookshops
and lost property offices
and besides, more people had read it since the artist's work
than ever did when it was in print.

I wonder what she'd say to me now
if she saw my growing portfolio
watercolours on printed pages
altered books and hand-cut pages
new art pfrom recycled books
with paper figures made from pages
and the leftover pieces
recycled in the compost bin
ready to grow neologisms
and basal dictionaries.

No comments: