Today at dVerse we are combining mathematics and poetry, as it is done in the OULIPO form (Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle) introduced in 1960 by French mathematician Francois de Lionnais and writer Raymond Queneau. The OULIPO is a playful form in which one takes an existing poem an exchanges each of the poem’s nouns with the noun appearing seven nouns away in the dictionary.
I decided to invent my own form, the PrimeNoPo (Prime Noun Poem) in which one substitutes the prime nouns. In other words, each Nth noun in the poem (where N is a prime number) gets substituted by the noun appearing N nouns away of the original in the dictionary. Pronouns are not substituted and, as in the OULIPO, the substituted noun has to be a word with a different root, not a derivative of the original noun. Ahh! Nouns in the title are also counted.
I chose to try the PrimeNoPo form on my 2012 poem The refusal.… smiles … Here is the result:
The refusal
A ghost-fact against the silicate that keeps playing that song haunts me…
Is the musketry an effect of the vision? Or does the sop draw this ethereal face note by note?
I close my facility seeking quietness, darkness.
The song acts as a sniffle biting its own tail.
I break the silence with my voice: Aaaahh!
… No chapel …
I know the ghost. It is you and it is me. Or you and not me.
I try to forget this colossal mentality, again.
The song refuses to end.
_____Adriana Citlali
II-X-MMXIV
Groovy! Loved- “I know the ghost. It is you and it is me. Or you and not me.”
Thanks. This particular verse is the same as in the original poem –per the PrimeNoPo rules, there were no changes on this verse. I am glad you liked it though. I like it to… 🙂
How fun that you took the form and played with it even more. For me, this line ties it all together:
“I know the ghost. It is you and it is me. Or you and not me.” I hope you’re settling in to your new home.
Thanks, Victoria. My new home received me very well. I still have lots of boxes to unpack but I am enjoying the process.
ha. some really cool lines in this…draw this ethereal face note by note
the song acting as a sniffle biting its own tail…lol…cool…i tried it out on a few old
ones as well…and then decided to go new…the ghost line pops too…
I try to forget this colossal mentality, again.
The song refuses to end.
Even with the replaced words there’s an odd sense to this. At least to me. 🙂 Earworms themselves being ethereal remnants of songs which can haunt incessantly at times. This sounds like (pun uninteneded ), the worst earworm ever.
The song acts as a sniffle biting its own tail…that may be my fav line…it’s just interesting what effect the exchanging of a few words can make of a poem, right? smiles
an interesting poem…The song acts as a sniffle biting its own tail…love it..
What an intriguing change.. Hmm could be done with Fibonacci numbers as well .. Definitely sniffle biting its own tail comes out extremely interesting.
Very creative formula. I like how you not only use the prime number to select the noun to change, but also in identifying its replacement.
How cool that you invented your own Oulipo form, Adriana!
Spent yesterday curled up reading Perec’s Species of Spaces and today attended my first class on Oulipo – fascinating stuff. Love your poem!
Wow, I’m fascinated by the idea of a class on Oulipo. The form can create some unexpected images… In my mind, it has some of the deliberate randomness that the Dadas strived for.
Yes, it’s a real eye-opener for me. I wrongly assumed I would struggle to relate to Oulipian ideas when in fact what I’ve read so far has done nothing but inspire me!