V

[V]

 

Versions vary, but fairly soon after the year Dot

Aspirationals built brick-by-brick quite a lot

A pyramid reflected in the sand red hot

V constructhist poem Disk would print on the spot.

Vain to the point of vainglory they got what they got

Attending to skyhigh values, but to their Maker, not.

Verbs vertebrated, nouns nonsensed, meanings went blot

As they witless split, not clear just what governed what.

 

Versions verify various likewise latter-day plots:

Aspires who built digital reincarnations chatting rot

Atmosphere memories missing the bon mot

Voluminous city and tower of invisible bot and jot.

Vain vastnesses in Confusion © software went shot,

A cloud of unknowing begot a cloud of forgot.

A reading of Genesis 11: 1-9, assisted by the letter V in Vitezslav Nezval’s alphabet book ‘Abeceda’. A copy of this book, published in Prague in 1926, is on display at the NGV at the moment. I have copied the relevant page for reference. Nezval is still in his Russian Constructivist period, though he doesn’t do Constructivism like people in Moscow. Nezval’s ‘hot’ and ‘spot’ inspired the brickwork of end-rhymes, while his A and V inspired the pattern of reflections on the left.

V (May)

“Poème Symphonique, for 100 metronomes, was a reminder of Ligeti’s delight in the absurd.” (Guardian, 25 May 2018) Absurd, and yet György Ligeti was in protest. 100 pendulums V from one side to the other and back, clocking each their exact timing, until they run down and stop. Protest against "stubborn and intolerant" ideologies. Winston Churchill’s victory salute morphs into Ringo Starr's peace sign. 100 windscreen wipers at differing speeds pelt down the rainy freeway. “The piece has been recorded several times, but performed only occasionally due to the obvious difficulty of procuring such a large number of machines.” (Wikipedia)

V (February)

V is for Very, as at the end of a school essay, “V. Good!” More than good, but yet not quite “Excellent”. Why not excellent? We’re never told. Something we wrote? Something we didn’t write? The term that started in February concluded with “V. Good!” “Needs to concentrate.” “Room for improvement.” “Could do better with more effort.” Definitions proliferate when things aren’t so “V. Good!” W is for What? A couple of loops that is the teacher’s signature. More like an excuse for a signature. Very, very much needs to make themselves clearer! No doubt they are doing their best.  

V (September)

 Virtual Venice, where Alexander Calders are giant attenuated red insects in my dreaming atrium. Victory fanfares party-popper the plaza of gold-thread-and-feathers that any moment will be lost in rain. Vengeance is staved off over espressos when the beginning of the end of the Cold War is the only talk. Volcanoes burst anew from eighteenth-century imprints opened for visitors. Vile insinuations wash down the canal of yesterday’s crime scene, all in my mind. Violin TV signals continuity from upstairs windows. Vietnamese mint beams in purely cerebral patio pots. Vacancies press at hotel doors where September makes way for early chill factor.