5th Light Poem and 2nd Piece For George Brecht To Perform, Tho Others May Also Unless He Doesn't Want Them To

5TH LIGHT POEM AND 2ND PIECE FOR GEORGE BRECHT TO PERFORM
THO OTHERS MAY ALSO UNLESS HE DOESN'T WANT THEM TO -- 13 JUNE 1962


George Brecht
in a white light
sits on a white
wooden chair.
He wears a
white tee shirt
white cotton trousers
white socks &
white tennis
shoes.

He throws white roses
from a white vase
into a white waste-
basket placed
at a challenging distance from the chair.

Around & between
George's chair
& the wastebasket
he has placed
sources of some kinds of light
& emblems of the possibility of others.

He continues throwing the roses into the wastebasket
until he misses.

Then he goes to the rose on the floor
& carefully draws a line on the
floor with
white chalk
from the bottom of the rose's stem
to the petals &
prolongs the line until he hits
or nears
a light source or emblem.

After pocketing the chalk
he retrieves the roses from the wastebasket
counts them out loud
& returns them & the one from the floor
to the vase.

He goes back to the white chair.

As he sits
the lights go out
for as many time-units
of his own choosing
as there had been roses
in the
waste-
basket.

Then George produces a light by means of the source
if the rose pointed to a light source
& if it pointed to an emblem
he makes the kind of light the emblem symbolizes visible.

This kind of light remains visible
for as many time-units
(either one's the same as those that measured the darkness
or different ones than those that measured the darkness)
as there had been roses in the wastebasket.

Among the kinds of light that might be seen now
might be
arc-light
watch-light light
jump-spark igniter light
Aufklarung
lightning
rays of light
cold light
moonlight
naphtha-lamp light
noontide light
luminiferousness
almandite light
enameling-lamp light
a nimbus
meteor light
Jack-o'-lantern light
water lights
jack-light light
refracted light
altar light
Corona-cluster light
magic lantern light
ice-sky light
clear grey light
iridescence
natural light
infra-red light
Reichsanstalt's lamplight
exploding-starlight
Saturn light
Earthlight
actinism
sodium-vapor lamplight
cloud light
Coma-cluster light
alcohol lamplight
luster
light of day &/or
lamplight.

One of these kinds of light might be seen now
or
some other kind of light.

After a short darkness
the white light goes on again
& George
on his white wooden chair
throws the white roses into the white wastebasket
until
he
misses.

Then he does what he does again
then more darkness
then
the kind of light
pointed to
by the rose on the floor
then
more
darkness
then George in a white light throwing roses
& so on
until he feels it beautiful to stop.


Jackson Mac Low

Posted over on Maclow