Poems in the Public Domain

POEMS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN [PITPD] represents a new form of poetic anthology—one that celebrates the role of the reader in shaping the life of a poem. In this unique art piece, 14 readers take turns discovering 30 classic poems. We invite collectors to explore this compendium, selected to present a diverse, engaging archive that acknowledges the importance of certain seminal works in shaping our collective unconscious.

Inspired by Roland Barthe's maxim, "those who fail to reread are obliged to read the same story everywhere," each reader is represented by multiple pen colors & new marginalia, suggesting the crucial act of rereading.

The verses vanish, just like our memory of their exact words might fade, but distilled, standout moments of personal connection remain. In time, even these wane, providing a scarcely perceptible backdrop as the poem is discovered & interpreted anew.

PITPD explores authorship. When a poem enters the public domain, it no longer belongs to its author but to its readers. In the intimate moments we read a poem, we link it to our private, pulsating worlds & help ensure others will read it, too. If history’s palms hadn’t held Sappho’s words, our fingers wouldn’t hold them now.

Readers write poetry’s survival.

Each iteration of PITPD traces a narrative that can play for hours without repeating. Some 89% of iterations chronicle the life of a single poem, while 11% include multiple poems, intentionally surveying intertextuality. Taking advantage of the generative medium, embodied readership is represented via dynamic handwriting, dancing markings, algorithmic paper aging, coded stains, & other effects.

Spacebar pauses & resumes the animation. Refreshing the browser window restarts it. For those interested in the underlying code, please open the browser console. This collection’s ciphers, too, are in the public domain.

Additional information can be found in the companion article on fx(text): fxhash.xyz/article/poems-in-the-public-domain-marginalia-as-living-verse