Octet

“Octet” is a poem conceived in eight parts, separate but interlocking and dependent upon the others. Each segment of the poem occupies its own space and sense of time—its own microcosm within the piece—but is ultimately incomplete without its compatriots.

This poem was originally conceived as a digital work, which can be viewed here: https://briarmoro.github.io/digitaleditions/octet/index.html

To create the poem physically, use a tool of your choosing—a divination practice, a random number generator, etc.—to generate eight different numbers. These will be the lengths of times you’ll wait before swapping out each line of the poem for the next, with each length assigned to one of the poem’s eight segments. Keep the same intervals until all of the segments of the poem have been gone through in their entirety. Alternatively, you can ignore any sense of having set times completely, simply improvising, reading, and changing each segment at a pace that feels natural for you. Cut out the lines to rearrange them physically—or simply imagine them where you would like them to be, constructing the visual poem in your mind.