I am a little obsessed with Eugene Ostashevsky's latest book, The Life and Opinions of DJ Spinoza. I first encountered his work a few years ago, when someone introduced me to this fantastic video of him reading at UC Berkeley's Lunch Poems series. (It is long and you will like it.) My current top hit is this poem, "P or Not P," which perfectly combines alogic, grief, extreme rhyme, and achingly simple syntax (not all at the same time). What is it like? It is like a child with a proof and a blog and a healthy sense of wonder and doom. And a boat. I am broken from loving this poem.
P OR NOT P
1.
Excuse me, is this P or ¬P, the sky or not the sky, the building or
not the building?
Does the building imply the sky, does the sky imply the building,
what does the not-building imply?
There are waves to one side of the building
and a boat.
We stepped down into the boat
and sailed away.
We sailed past an island where Dave Cameron stood
reading his poetry.
We sailed past an island where Brandon Downing stood
reading his poetry.
We sailed past an island where Macgregor Card stood
reading his poetry.
So much poetry for one day!
2.
SOME QUESTIONS:
Are there books in the building? Is there a book on fire
in the building?
Is there a book on fire in a book on fire in the building?
Is this the beginning of number?
SOME ANSWERS:
The beginning of number is song. The song
is not about anything. It gave birth to the world.
The world is not about anything.
SOME COMMENTS:
Animals gather around the song. They listen, tilting
their heads.
They have large eyes. We can count the animals.
3.
"What do we do when the song ends for somebody
what do we do
Do we say, Don't go
what will I do if you do
Do we run to the doctor and cry,
Give me an MRI, doctor! What he has
I might have it too
Do we lie around despondent and blue
O why do you go, why do you go
There's so little time left
"Let us sit down, me and you
Let me help you sit down
because I am now a man and for you
it's hard even to sit down
What do we do now, what do we do
Let us speak, me and you
We never learned to speak, me and you
Let us start, ma-ma da-da
You say The Metamorphosis
is about dying
Let us sit on this rock, me and you
I say, ma-ma da-da
We live in Brooklyn
We have a dog"
This is the song as heard / unheard by the animals. By some of
the animals. By none of the animals. There are no animals.
There are only points, each at the convergence of an infinity
of structures. The structures appear to be of metal. They
oscillate. They make noise.
4.
What is mathematics to animals? Is P or ¬P true
for all animals? Does 1+1=2
for all animals? Is there a me and you
for all animals? What is
mathematics to animals? What are animals
to mathematics? Take away mathematics
and there are no animals. Take away animals
and there is no mathematics.
The animals gather for a concert of mathematics. We sail
past them.
They are capable of love. We sail past them.
5.
We sail and we repeat. What do we repeat? Words.
What are these words? There is a word for sky
and there is a word for building.
What do they mean? They mean sky
and building. The sky is blue.
The building is pink and white.
