Jonathan Ball: EX MACHINA: Excerpts

[06]

Any device that transmits or modifies energy. [02]

Any device used to perform a specialized task. [10]

Any device to which the word is applied. [27]

Something torn apart, into separate parts. [05]

A confusion to which all is aligned. [11]

 

 

[07]

It is all a dream. [28]

An angel arrives. [49]

Reinforcements penetrate. [38]

They are defeated by a virus. [12]

You are a character in this book. [39]

What you forgot, that which now saves you. [16]

The author intervenes. [54]

[ ]s appear, borne on metal wings. [15]

 

 

[63]

My spine is broken. [01]

My ribs are splayed open like wings. [64]

 

 

[48]

If only I knew what you wanted. [29]

If only I could fashion it. [45]

There would be singing and whirring in the streets. [17]

These broken hands moving, turning over. [04]

The living metal, the riven flesh. [35]

The risen stone, the shriven God. [59]

 

 

[49]

The eyes, windows. [34]

Stained glass. [24]

Light behind the screen. [22]

The cliché that you call your soul. [63]

 

 

[50]

The poem is not written by machines. [36]

It is the root, the cause of machines. [17]

As the book does not birth the poem, but is its vessel in the world. [15]

Clothing the Word in flesh, so that it might finally die. [63]

 

 

[51]

The poem is not written by the author. [52]

It is the root, the cause of authors. [57]

Like a virus moving inside your skull. [43]

To eat, and grow, and change. [61]