Mutations, and Infinitely Continued

Athanasius Kircher, "Mutationes, & sic in infinitum," in Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni (1650)

Since I accept poetry made out of nothing but words that don't exist, poetry made out of nothing but letters (neobetisms or real ones) that make no words, since I believe in poetry where the words have been replaced with images, a poetry created from punctuation marks alone, it is not difficult for me to believe in a poetry made of nothing but numerals and the sense they make.

I have to admit, though, that there is not much poetry in Athanasius Kircher's "Mutations, and Infinitely Continued" [my translation], which crisscrosses mathematically across a line slanted to allow for the growth of the created number as a numeral to the right of that line is multiplied by a number one line below it and to the left of the line, and where the process is continued with the numbers on the left side being merely sequential to 24, but the power of multiplication makes the numbers to the right grow long and snaky.

It is certain that all that is happening here are mathematical equations, but they are used to inspire. This poem is about the concept, about reaching out to infinity, about the speed of doing it through multiplication, about the power of imagination. And, unlike so many of the poetries I make and inhabit, this is actually made out of characters in our language, made out of numerals, which are all named and thus speakable. And the mathematical operations here are repeatable as well. This poem is not made for solving problems. It is created to cause one, and to cause some sense of awe in the face ot it.

In the face of everything, infinity, and so in the face of absolute nothingness, too.

ecr. l'inf.