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The Magic Rule of 9
Your sonic suit will never be a perfect fit. You’ll learn to
get by. Just don’t assume all art is all about victory over
death all the time. Not to say the meantime isn’t as good
a time as any to enjoy not being dead. In the swell of
many a meantime, many have diverted themselves with
great success. Hence civilizations’ discontents and
greatest hits. Take for instance the magic rule of nine.
That the sums of all numbers within the sums of all
multiplicands of 9, up to and including 9, equal 9:
1x9=9, 9=9; 2x9=18, 1+8=9; 3x9=27, 2+7=9; etc.
This is numerically melodious (bird sings in tree) to the
species that longs for more than a first glance affords.
Someone will say, If you really think this is magic, you
don’t properly understand the decimal system (bird
falls out of tree). Who among us doesn’t long for magic.
Who among us truly understands the decimal system.
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Joan Retallack's BOSCH'D (Fables, Moral Tales & Other Awkward Constructions), in which this poem appears, came out from Litmus Press on April Fools Day, 2020. She feels it's impossible to dispute the aptness of that date given local and global circumstances at the time. Retallack is the author of The Poethical Wager (University of California Press) and Procedural Elegies—Western Civ Cont'd (Roof Books) among many other volumes of poetry and essays. Her Gertrude Stein: Selections (California) and conversations with John Cage (MUSICAGE, Wesleyan) examine the humor and gravitas of idiosyncratic aesthetics that became, respectively, so widely influential. Prior to BOSCH'D, Litmus Press published Retallack’s The Supposium: Thought Experiments & Poethical Play in Difficult Times— 2018 textual/visual continuation of an event she organized at MoMA in collaboration with Adam Pendleton. In all her work, Retallack combines socio-political inquiry with linguistic, visual, performative experiments in what she considers "poethical wagers.”
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The logic is lovely, dark and deep.
Posted by: Jill Newnham | November 01, 2020 at 01:07 PM
"numerically melodious (bird sings in tree)": beautiful! Great to read a poem that references the decimal system.
Posted by: Christopher J Mason | November 01, 2020 at 03:57 PM
Thanks for your comment, Chris. I agree--
the decimal system has been too much ignored in contemporary poetry.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 01, 2020 at 06:17 PM
Great to see math in a poem, and a stirring, lovely poem at that.
Posted by: Karen Sagstetter | November 02, 2020 at 08:14 AM
Thanks for the comment, Karen. This is definitely the way I prefer to get my math.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 02, 2020 at 09:26 AM
Also a fan of math in poems. I wish more numbers could be like 9.
Posted by: Bernard Welt | November 02, 2020 at 12:46 PM
I agree. The number 9 is very fine.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 02, 2020 at 03:09 PM
As a one-time math major I'm all for the numerical melodies. But what I really love is the rhythm of the phrases - sonic suit, greatest hits - and the repetitions.
Posted by: Susan Levenstein | November 04, 2020 at 03:01 AM
Thanks for your comment, Susan. I agree---it's the language not the math that makes this such a great poem.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 04, 2020 at 07:08 AM
The math's the thing
that makes this poem ring.
Posted by: Tony Paris | November 04, 2020 at 12:45 PM
Numbers flying, like the birds: Yes. I dig this on a lot of levels. It makes me think of SIX in some ways. That's my favorite book by David Meltzer. It came out from Black Sparrow Press a long time ago. About a decade ago (?) I bought a copy of Retallack's SELECTIONS of Gertrude Stein. It remains an extremely important book. I go back to it all of the time. Bravo on all levels. I look forward to reading more of her work. It's sad that the University of California Press has dropped its out there poetry series. It seems that it evaporated after the release of THE COLLECTED POEMS OF PHILIP LAMANTIA. Oh well. One never knows. Thanks, TP, for keeping it fresh.
Posted by: Lawrence Welsh | November 05, 2020 at 05:27 PM
Loved this poem, following its path knowing I hadn't read anything like it, letting its reasoning elude but retain me at the same time, wishing I could and wanting to sit down right away and write something like it, at its heights!
Posted by: Don Berger | November 06, 2020 at 07:48 AM
Don---I believe you would love Joan's new book, Bosch'd.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 06, 2020 at 07:55 AM
Thanks, Lawrence. I was knocked out by Joan's new book.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 06, 2020 at 07:58 AM
This poem makes my heart sing!
Posted by: Jiwon Choi | November 07, 2020 at 03:36 AM
Thanks, Jiwon---I'm so glad you liked it.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 07, 2020 at 06:03 AM
Wit, beauty and math. A great way to enjoy not being dead.
Posted by: evelyn reilly | November 16, 2020 at 08:14 AM
Yes, that is so true. Thanks for you comment, Evelyn.
Posted by: Terence Winch | November 16, 2020 at 08:29 AM