AXIOM: A MATHEMATICS OF POETRYby Richard SmythIt shall be taken as given the idea of infinition. The idea of infinition stands in direct opposition to the idea of definition.
Infinition is the act of making indefinite or unclear. That is to say, while some uses of language attempt to clarify, others attempt to obfuscate.
Make a poem.
Call the poem the only poem. Call the space of the page a universe to be born. Call the shape the poem takes on the page a creation.
For any author, conception shall be the planting of a seed in the fertile soil of the divine. Equally, if the author is truly inspired, conception is a sowing of the divine within the author. That is to say, sex is a metaphor of linguistic conceptualization. Thus, the value of a conception is the warmth with which it was conceived.
Every birth requires pain.
or the translations of light
Let the word stand for another word. Call this language.
The word shall unfold as if a soft cloth. Language shall unravel like an old blanket.
Let a word be broken into other words. Call these other words phrases and clauses. In short, clarity is the result of fracture and analysis.
Let any juxtaposition of two words be an invitation to compare. Let the comparison be designated by a copulative. Let the copulative be represented by a sign
of equation. Call this the convention of equation. In general, what is compared is the same.
Let there be multiple meanings for each word. Call these meanings the ambiguities.
The darknesses bring light.
They carry it upon their backs They are bent and stooped like slaves. They are the translators.
Let the ambiguities take up residence Call the house a form. If the boundary between outside and inside is clearly distinguishable call the form a closed form. If the boundary between outside and inside is indistinguishable call the form an open form. There is only one open form.
Every open door is an invitation to enter.
In the beginning was the myth
Let there be a poet who will make the myth. Call it all good.
This is the coming down off the mountain. This is the stone tablet and the word of god.
This is the stained glass window the light
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