To Make a Nature Poem I

7/24/2019 To Make a Nature Poem I

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To Make a Nature Poem Iby Tom Mirovski

Take a large plastic box and sterilize with ultraviolet light for ten minutes. In the box, place an

old dusty book opened to a page of your choice. Pour sterilized water into the box, submerging

some of the book but keeping the surfaces of the pages exposed to the air. Close the box and

incubate at 37 C to propagate the growth of the mold in the book's dust. Do not directly transfer

the mold to the exposed pages, but allow the spores to germinate on their own. Every day,

observe the fungal growth and photograph the pages (Fig 1). Run the photographs through

optical character recognition program. The software will indiscriminately read the mold and ink

on the page, interpret the shapes it observes, and produce a text altered by moldy growth.

Figure 1: The Moldy Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Moldy growth over T.S. Eliot's poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, following seven days

of incubation. Accumulating water in the curvature of the second page resulted in a denser growth

of mold.


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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

By T.S. Eliot

Let us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out against the skyLike a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,The muttering retreatsOf restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you to an overwhelming question.Oh, do not ask, What is it?Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and goTalking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on thewindow-panesLicked its tongue into the corners of the evening,Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,Let fall upon its back the soot that falls fromchimneys,Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,And seeing that it was a soft October night,Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be timeFor the yellow smoke that slides along the street,Rubbing its back upon the window panes;There will be time, there will be timeTo prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;There will be time to murder and create,And time for all the works and days of handsThat lift and drop a question on your plate;Time for you and time for me,And time yet for a hundred indecisions,And for a hundred visions and revisions,

Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and goTalking of Michelangelo.And indeed there will be timeTo wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare?Time to turn back and descend the stair,With a bald spot in the middle of my hair(They will say: How his hair is growing thin!)

i err then, you and 1, by T.S. Eliot, Unidentified

Mold, and OCR software

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[...]

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat apeach?I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walkupon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each toeach.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the wavesCombing the white hair of the waves blownbackWhen the wind blows the water white andblack.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red andbrownTill human voices wake us, and we drown.

[...]

S??? I part my hair bchindt. DU 1 dam: 1.0peach",511a wear White flannel Human, and W53 whimfbaCh. I ~ . r.

I myths the mermaids Siflgmg. to each,7 ' . a n H :' awalmxcfl HIV ""1 v ' m "W"V -" I" T if: 9-v.x -\,- 7 ~ g x _ a .v7 vs" is -,-=*'v~ fa; 5" xvi, : w:.;,;_6-";fiwax.,.=(H1 - , *s.~'.x:-"~rf"9~.'?:., -.~ with 3'13! .m? a , mgr- L y .r. - x a ,v -A1W. it; . N23 .; I, .A 7 I 7 ,x.n - J. .2 . 2. a r a [Jfiwg ., ,. , r 7 H ur A Elk-14:. 4. fl?" 314:4 .. r ,v1 2:1 'n A. 41:?!9'4 is? .. ' , v 3- :17 wits} 5};th A". 5 (Th7 VJ ("u-U" .I w ' v ""1321? Sfikf ' r I x r '1"

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To Make a Nature Poem I