John Cage

It seems silly to write an introduction for John Cage.

Arguably one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, Cage was what can be called a “polyartist", creating work in many fields: as a composer, writer, and visual artist. His ground-breaking compositional work, which pioneered a new conception of music based on the use of chance and other nonintentional methods also laid the foundation for this poetic work.

From the 1960s onward, Cage created a number of mesostics, a form of acrostics, which made use of pre-existing texts from writers such as Henry David Thoreau, James Joyce and Ezra Pound. Through chance methods such as casting the I Ching, Cage created texts from found materials which not only challenged the status of the author but also posed questions about the structure of syntax itself.

As Cage put it:

“Syntax, like government, can only be obeyed. It is therefore of no use except when you have something particular to command such as: Go buy me a bunch of carrots.”

Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-cage
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/john-cage-roaring-silence

My below poem combines Cage’s ideas about the role of “everyday noises” with his favourite poetic form: the mesostic. Drawing on the material of “everyday noises” created by my Facebook feed, I created a text centred around the notion of the Filter Bubble.

~ - ~

today is mother’s day

                 let your Friends know if you’re celebrating
                       markIng
                       peopLe you may know
           black sabbaTh, 1970
                           seE all friend recommendations
             she was boRn on the top bunk in the barracks of camp c at auschwitz-birkenau in december 1944

                                                                           as the Boat listed and took on water, and with most of the women and children stuck below deck
                                                                                   mUm’s the word
                          ecstatic to say that i passed my initial Body balance training
while women everywhere
                     continue to be judged on their looks, and Blamed when they fail to make enough or the right kind of effort
                                       by 2050 we could have more pLastic than fish in our oceans
                                                              feels like you neEd to know this exists

                                   beautiFul portraiture of the very first brain surgery patients
                          i support thIs
                                           pLease sign & share
           even after the graduaTe made him a superstar
    has anyone in clarkston nEar eastwoodmains road seen sheerie
                                      go cRaft now

                                                   a man took a razor Blade and very carefully cut open his nose
                                 happy mother's day to all the fUr baby mums
pointless as it may be, i wish this
                          woman, whom i have never met, a Better future life, if only as the mother of the daughter she never had
                                                                                  Backed by experts, based on decades of clinical research
                                                          the name's hiddLeston
                                                                           grimEs as mrs. marilyn manson

sign >> by 2050 our oceans could contain more plastic than Fish                                                                                    cat (admIn)
                                                    portraits of inmates from a ‘Lunatic asylum,’ 1869
                                                         nobody takes their mum To the cinema on mother’s day
some people go through
                               their whole life without meeting that influEntial person who will change the way they think about love and life
                                      rise and shine - baking bread from scaRtch is nowhere near as daunting

                          when i look at the right side of my face i can see the damage, But randy says nice things to me that make me feel just as attractive as before the incident
       a successful day in the library is one where people complain, like they woUld with any other local authority service
                                                                                   first person language and aBleism
                                                             the proposed statue of sylvia has always Been rejected
                                                          perhaps, then, we should be asking a slightLy different question
                                                             7 activities that make your orgasm strongEr

                       my Friends think i’ve gone to a role-playing sex party
                          grImes - art angels, the new album, out now
the star
         wars george Lucas doesn’t want you to see
perhaps the most sTriking aspect of these interviews is the sheer variety of testimonies we encountered
who can sympathizE
       conor mcgregoR had rarely been tested in his fight career until he came up against nate diaz
‬
for labour supporters unconvinced by jeremy corByn, the search for an authentic voice leads to the door of the outspoken member for
birmingham yardley
to cap it all, he declared
            that “the last time we didn’t live within oUr means we were right in the front rank of nations facing economic crisis”
                                                             it is a safe Bet there will never be another nathan tinkler
                                                                      the bBc is under unprecedented political pressure, its morale is low
                          in defeat conor mcgregor can stilL win
                               whatever content you need, gEt it with istock credits

i had no idea i’d ever want time by myselF
                                   you might as well lIve a godly life, because if he exists, well, great, you are going to go to heaven
hillary clinton versus
                              donald j. trump has alL the makings of a rambunctious, vicious clash of styles
        it's kicking off with gilles peterson This week
                                      flipping good beEe
                watch as the iconic southwesteRn landscapes come to life

   1 top + 1 sports Bra + 1 leggings from only £26
          i cried so mUch that my family thought i was concealing some terrible news
can you really
      tell anything aBout people by their favourite colour
our loft contained
          more teddy Bears than you would have thought humankind could design
i don’t know who Likes this
    my ma at the agE i'm at now, always an inspiration