During the dance session this morning, I reached into my bag
for a pen, and didn't realize that the pen in there
had traveled with me from Boston.
Oh, by the way, I'm Amaranth Borsuk.
I came here from Massachusetts.
And that pen on the plane had exploded.
So I had that great moment that you
have where the ink becomes so material to you, the ink that's
always so nicely contained exploded out into my hand.
And I thought that seemed fitting
for this day in this environment.
So there may not be time for questions or conversation
after this presentation.
So if I don't have time for that,
I really hope that people who are interested in chatting
will come and find me outside.
Can you hear me OK?
Yes.
OK.
So I'm presenting and reading from Between Page And Screen,
which many of you probably have already seen.
It's on exhibit in the gallery.
And Between Page And Screen, it's
a book of poems that doesn't have any text in it
because these black and white geometric shapes.
And instructions to find the words,
go to betweenpageandscreen.com.
This book is a collaboration with Brad Bouse,
who unfortunately can't be here today.
But it wouldn't have been possible without him.
So when the reader goes to this website,
this is what he or she is confronted with,
their own face and their own body.
The body is part of this reading experience.
And when the book is opened up in front of the webcam,
that's when the poems appear.
"Dear S, I fast.
I fasten to become compact.
But listen, that's only part your impact.
I always wanted to fit a need.
It's my character to pin, impinge, a twinge of jealousy.
That feign tattoo.
Last night on the patio, poco a poco a patch while between us
unseemly unpleasant, pleasant.
Let's spread out the pent-up moment, pentimento, memento,
a pact.
Our story is spinto.
No more Esperanto."
So Between Page And Screen is a book
of poems that asks us to think about the relationship
between print and digital media at a time
when we're reading more and more on screens.
And these love letters between P and S
are interspersed with concrete poems that play with key words
from their letters.
I became interested in the etymology.
Etymologies of the words page and screen,
which appear to be at odds with one another.
Page comes from the roots, it means to join or connect.
It has all of these words pertaining
to pinning and affixing as this poem makes reference
to spin, pin into spinto.
Spin, pin into spinto.
Whereas, screen comes from a root.
It has a lot of-- oh, I should say that since page gives us
these words to do with connection and affixing,
also gives us peaceful words like peace, and appease,
and pact.
Whereas, screen comes from a root that means to shine.
And it gives us a lot of militaristic terms
like shield and sword.
"Dear P, I take your point.
I didn't mean to cut, but it's my stripe, my type.
I'd rather shear than share.
I wear a scarf to hide my scars.
My scabs have scabs.
My heart's a shard.
I am that Scaramouche.
I like a joust.
My tattoo says keep out.
I prefer arass to arias, you've guessed,
a bard of scabbards, a chorus of cuirass.
Our nocturnal, a skirmish was a junto.
Just that.
S."
Sheer.
Shear.
Share.
Shares.
Shears.
She hears, ear, shears.
So many of these love letters, P and S
are pushing at the boundaries of their relationship.
Page is interested in pinning down some sort of definition.
Screen is a little more elusive.
"Dear S, you blanch.
I didn't mean to impale you with my pin,
my origin's to join to stake a claim.
But that root, palus leads both ways, to Palisade and pole,
but also travel and travail.
I ply this narrow palette, not to palter, but to plait
our letters, keeping pace.
Let it lapse, scabs can be peeled back.
Pax."
Pale.
Pole.
Peel.
Pale.
All of these words come from the same root as page.
And have to do with the joining and connection.
Of course, a pole is a place that holds one in place,
but if tethered to a pole, one can run a certain circuit.
"Dear P, you give me space to undulate, scheren.
My best subject was always division.
I like partition.
You only get a portion of the stuff that makes me up,
or anyone.
The rest hides.
I own both sword and plowshare, sure.
I lied, not idle.
I sidle up to either side that held
me let slide my I. Oh, yes, S."
So a screen does have all of these words related to it that
are militaristic and dangerous.
And a page has all of these pacifist terms.
But the more you explore the other words that
come to us from these groups, the more
you see there are connections.
So a screen while it is a protective surface, also
undulates and it can be sheer like scheren.