Klaus Høeck: 'Åndelig øvelse 6' (Heptameron)

 

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mental exercise

number six

sit down at your

oak writing desk

place a sheet of

paper in front of you

describe the sky

and the stars

larger than above

the hills of your

childhood describe

the night’s

fanned-out peacock’s tail

 

 

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now turn the paper

over and try

to describe a

model of your

surroundings as best

you can: the neighbour’s

house over there in

the dark lit up

by a crystal chandelier

distant towns you

can still recall far

off on the other

side of the dream 

 

 

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then concentrate

on converting

your garden into

language flower

for flower tree

for tree write

this sentence down:

roses flower
for half a year

poems flower

for ever – write it

down on the paper

and learn it by heart

 

 

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now it’s the turn

of your own house

sit down in

the middle of your house

and reproduce

exactly its layout

the relation of the rooms

to each other

the positions of the doors

whether the kitchen

faces south the grammar

of the wallpapers et

cetera etc. 

 

 

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finally take a

new sheet of paper

out of the drawer and

place it in front of you

on the writing desk

carefully copy the surface

of this writing desk

what is lying on

it: a packet of kings

a pair of glasses kingo’s

winter hymns and this

drawing which contains

this drawing which...