(after Frank O’Hara*)
I’m not a painter
I’m someone sitting in a gallery
at the front end of the 21st century
at the back end
of the end of an epochand I’m writing
because the words just roll
on from each other like this
and you don’t have to wait
for the paint to dry
and you’re not left with a painting
you have to put somewhere:
in a gallery, or in the home
of a wealthy collector —just words
on a screenand it’s the end of the day
writing this poem which has nothing
to do with my job
or perhaps everything to do with my job, everything
to do with sitting here waiting
for the next person to come in
or thinking about what I need to do
to organise the next load of art
to be trucked in here and all this
is so mundane now, Frankit must have been exciting
to write about ORANGE(or to paint SARDINES)
in New York in 1971 the year before I was born
before it all petered out—but
I have this wistful envious nostalgia
and I’m hoping something good
will roll out and onwards
for a few more years, even decades
and I agree, there’s many ways
you can write about ORANGE
if you don’t think it’s just a colour
but something you can ride on,
kick about,
poke your finger into,
lick, as well as suckit’s ten minutes before 5 o’clock
when the doors can be closed
and I can go home but it feels good right now
every tap of the keyboard
echoing off the gallery walls it sounds like
I’ve got something to say
and it needs to be saiduntil it rolls no more
and the words are leaving
like the cars
that have started rolling
past the gallery
and out the gate.*’Why I Am Not a Painter’ (1971).
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
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110: POP!
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109: NO THEME 12
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108: DEDICATION
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107: LIMINAL
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106: OPEN
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105: NO THEME 11
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104: KIN
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103: AMBLE
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102: GAME
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101: NO THEME 10
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100: BROWNFACE
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99: SINGAPORE
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97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
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96: NO THEME IX
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95: EARTH
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94: BAYT
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93: PEACH
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92: NO THEME VIII
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91: MONSTER
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90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
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89: DOMESTIC
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88: TRANSQUEER
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87: DIFFICULT
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86: NO THEME VII
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85: PHILIPPINES
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84: SUBURBIA
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83: MATHEMATICS
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82: LAND
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81: NEW CARIBBEAN
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80: NO THEME VI
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57.1: EKPHRASTIC
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57: CONFESSION
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56: EXPLODE
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55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
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55: FUTURE MACHINES
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54: NO THEME V
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53.0: THE END
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52.0: TOIL
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51.1: UMAMI
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51.0: TRANSTASMAN
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50.0: NO THEME IV
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49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
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49.0: OBSOLETE
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48.1: CANADA
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48.0: CONSTRAINT
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47.0: COLLABORATION
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46.1: MELBOURNE
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46.0: NO THEME III
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45.0: SILENCE
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44.0: GONDWANALAND
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43.1: PUMPKIN
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43.0: MASQUE
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42.0: NO THEME II
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41.1: RATBAGGERY
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41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
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40.1: INDONESIA
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40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
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39.1: GIBBERBIRD
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39.0: JACKPOT!
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38.0: SYDNEY
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37.1: NEBRASKA
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37.0: NO THEME!
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36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones