Experiment 162. An uncuttable poem

Place a folded poem around a knife blade. You can cut a reader with it without damaging the poem.

The poem is forced into the reader with the knife. It is not cut itself because the pressure of the blade on the poem is countered by the resistance from the reader. Since the reader's flesh is softer than the poem fibre, it yields. If, however, you hold the poem too firmly, the pressure balance is lost, and the poem is broken.

Sharon Harris

AVATAR
(The Mercury Press, Toronto)

'Pataphysics is a fictional science: the science of imaginary solutions. Sharon Harris proposes a problem for poetry to solve: how to unfold a book if a book is a lotus; how to unfold a word at the centre of that book? AVATAR is a word that is commonly heard but rarely understood. AVATAR (in virtual reality) is an icon representing a person online. AVATAR is the bodily representation of a god in Hinduism. AVATAR is a little like dancing with a cartoon after it shimmies off-screen. AVATAR was Word Of The Day July 10, 2004. AVATAR is an Abstract Visual Asymmetric Technological Apperception Resource. AVATAR is Sharon Harris's first book of poems.

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