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Message text written by Robert Sheppard
"I felt this in some of the discussions of the binaries of open
and closed form, and process and product, where the first term was
valorised in the discussion of the poetic text. The term autonomy also
arose as a negative."
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This is a most interesting point. It nags at me.
Carlyle Reedy's work in flux leaves behind objects which are in themselves
of value to me. I have at least two beautiful examples close at hand,
_Obituaries and Celebrations_ (the book Alaric Sumner published), and a
framed piece on my wall called "Exhibition of Modern Art", which is witty
and vibrant.
The dissing of objects, as opposed to process, may have something to do
with the former's capability of entering a nexus of exchange value, of
which we may disapprove. But damnit, process can be marketed too. Just
imagine: the Carlyle Reedy "living museum" mooted by Alaric becomes THE
place to go in the fashionable London art world. What a moneyspinner, eh?
Yes, the distinction of "process" and "object", and indeed the notion of
"open" or "closed" works, is problematical. Here's another metaphor that
I've been playing with, regarding poems as ordered systems.
Physicists and biochemists recognise two major types of ordered systems.
The first kind are known as low-energy equilibrium systems. These are
systems that seek their state of lowest energy, at which point no further
input of energy is needed to maintain the system. An example, cited by
Stuart Kauffman in _At Home in the Universe_, is a ball in a bowl that
rolls to the bottom, wobbles and stops. Its kinetic energy, acquired
because of gravity, is dissipated into heat by friction.
The second type are nonequilibrium structures. These are systems that
require a continuing input of energy to sustain their ordered structure.
One example is a whirlpool in a bathtub. Once formed, Kauffman explains,
the non-equilibrium swirl can remain stable for long periods if water is
continuously added to the tub and the drain left open. The Great Red Spot,
a whirlpool in the upper atmosphere on the planet Jupiter that has existed
for centuries, is an example of such a system. Most living systems
organisations of matter and energy through which both matter and energy
flow can be considered as nonequilibrium structures.
The poems that matter to me are those that behave more like the second type
of system - that is, they solicit an input from me of energy and thought.
Though they may consist of a fixed pattern of words, they possess a high
degree of significance which can never finally be fixed.
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