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Thursday, May 9, 2013

FOUR BUTTONS TWO HOLES FOUR BROOMS by JEAN ARP

This is another Poems-For-All  booklet from the generous gift of curator Richard Hansen! This mini-book features a poem, “Four buttons two holes four brooms” by Jean Arp.





You open the 1 ¾” x 2” book to read some background, i.e. that the book is “a collaboration with artist Marc Snyder. He suggested using the poetry of Dada artist and writer Jean Arp and provided the superlative impression of Arp you see on the cover. “




Marc also runs the co-publisher of this mini-book, Fiji Island Mermaid Press.  Anyway, you’d turn the page to see the text of the poem





Four buttons two holes four brooms
By Jean Arp


in the hollow-cheeked hollow of a
  pause
roll     fireproof gilded baits
down unchallenged staircases of
  eloquence
the catafalcons and catasparrows
  lie down
in their sneeze coffins
the tables follow the chairs like
     males after
females
     and what hovers over the tables and
     chairs in
the shape of a farewell-cloud
   declares in verse the situation to be
     hopeless


Here’s an image of both the front and back covers—strikingly designed!




And where shall we “shelve” this book?  Well, because the cover has an orange-ish background, I thought of an orange chair—the orange Eames chair!




Naturally, the surrealist tome doesn’t just allow itself to lie flat.  It must be slant, hang over the chair!


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