It is also a reminder of the influence of Brion Gysin,
who set the template for permutation poems back in the 1960s.
By Mike Ferguson
(from IT: INTERNATIONAL TIMES, The Newspaper of Resistance) [July 18, 2018]
By Brion Gysin
From BRION GYSIN LET THE MICE IN (page 51)
Something Else Press [1973]
By Brion Gysin
From BRION GYSIN LET THE MICE IN (page 53)
Something Else Press [1973]
Brion Gysin Let the Mice In includes texts by Gysin, William S. Burroughs, and Ian Sommerville. It is an expensive collector’s item these days. The German publisher Moloko Plus has offered to bring out a facsimile edition for interested readers at an affordable price.
One of Samuel Beckett’s last plays, “Rockaby” uses this technique to beautiful effect. I wonder if he used permutations on his own, or if he was aware he was using a technique developed by Gysin.
The play is about the last 20 minutes in the life of an old woman. Some examples:
for another
another like herself
another creature like herself
[…]
one other living soul
going to and fro
all eyes like herself
for another
at her window
another like herself
[…]
one other living soul
at her window
gone in like herself
I’m pretty sure I heard a recording of I am that I am, read by Gysin. Possibly one of the BBC recordings. It was forbidding and very funny at the same time, like overhearing the mantra of a god gone crazy with the loneliness of omnipotence.
Now THAT is a great description! Catches Gysin’s gestalt, absolutely.