A Hunt for Optimism in the middle — or Thereabouts
(for and against Viktor Shklovsky)
by ted landrum
the book is written in different books different parts convince me re-things are poetical
place you have literary origins on a ship asked from memory need them if they lose their guard
in rains the moon O bizarre heart riders of poetry in poetry
pinned you move on your ability to know
arch-re-innovators arch-under-merge with reality—the ironic
only one i will cross paths in person
ur notes in the most music mean even
we will think with yet another friend
room the deathless forebears write anew montaging out the captions
we made a mistake to err in order to pause the work for another i need to finish discussing (read) where is unity reader in the person looking and building an illusion just a landscape through
as desk as a reflection stand your transit to change or restructure the meantime say you stage a play and rip out the stage replaced by loud light beams the city as air
46
pass behind the invisible
fit in art re-art
there is your able
words ink the resistance the transformation of transformation my friend—i am no less a fact than actual
to find the reader in a foyer we are wearing
note : The source text for this found-erasure poem is the opening part of ‘The Middle of the Book or Thereabouts’ in Viktor Shklovsky’s A Hunt for Optimism [1929-31], translated by Shushan Avagyan. Dalkey Archives, 2012. p71-75.
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