GEOMETRY AND THE BOOK (AND A GIVEAWAY!)
Often near our house I find papery chunks of abandoned wasps' nests, fallen from under the eaves. Photo by Adrian van Leen /freeimages I keep thinking about reiteration and recursion in poems and groups of poems. (Right?) So when I came across this Rumpus interview with Kaveh Akbar about his new book Pilgrim Bell , it made sense to pause and listen. The whole book is really interested in recursion, recursive forms. I read the line in a Hadith about the prophet receiving revelation “like the ringing of a bell” and it blew my mind. And, the idea of the bell as a spiritual technology powered by the human form (someone has to pull the rope, which often literally lifts that person in the air, maybe almost too on the nose, that) is so akin to poetry, to me. A spiritual technology powered by the human body (lungs/breath/voice/tongue/ocular muscles across the page/fingers across the Braille, etc). Repeating titles: it’s iterative, recursive. Also, nerdily: Islamic architect