Irmak Canevi


I AM NEW



IN LIFE I AM NINETEEN
WITH MANY A NAIL

TAKE IT
THINK IT
WILL IT IN TIME
THEN ALINE IT
YET IF I WANT A MEAN AT IT
I FALL FLAT IN IT

I AIM MAX
I FAKE A LITTLE
I TIE THEM AT A LIE
THEN I EXIT THEM LETTER

I WAIT
FLY A KITE
KNIT AN ANT
MEAL A HAM
EYE A VAN
AXE A TAIL
I WAIT

LIKE AN ENAMEL ANIMAL IN A TALL LEAN MAZE
I FLEE MY FATE
I AM LAME

THEN I TAKE MY FIVE
WITH IT
I KEY THEM ALL IN
EVENLY

FINALLY
IN IT WE LINE
WE FILE LIKE THIN FLAKE

AT THAT
IN MILKY WHITE I AM TEXT
I AM NEW

Irmak Canevi writes: "I AM NEW was an experiment. An attempt to try and transfer a chair (the first object I made in art school) onto paper by converting it into text. It is a poem written only in ‘straight’ capital letters therefore, without using curvy letters like, say, ‘o’, ‘p’, ‘s’, etc., to emulate the straight pieces of my chair."

 
 

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