Starting: On Jack Mac Low’s Doings.

By Anthony Hawley

Things are things and things are what

they are , starting then you

know finishing But once upon a time a thing comes and

starts and that thing’s power is that it does not

finish it just keeps on

starting on and

on This I’m sure is an odd

concept I mean What doesn’t finish But that’s

exactly where Jackson

Mac Low would have us , always

starting Because really this book

is a book like any

other It is a

book of always

starting

of always being able to

start newly , not just a how- to

but some- thing that is always about to become

some thing a little

bit more Slowly I think I’m beginning

to start To start a

thinking Starting

is and starting will

be

Just take this

miraculous book’s

title Doings

Well I don’t know

precisely what a “ doing

” is but I know I don’t

know any other word to describe what these works

are They are things that

have been done things that

will be done and things to do

right now

Things to read to look

at things to listen to and most important-

ly things to

try things to try

out your self Again strange

to think about a book of

poems that asks you to do it

to do the poems Sure we can

think of other books that ask to be

used but a book of

poems ? But that word: Doings has great presence

to it don’t you think ? It

implies some thing that very

much is and that goes on

and on and keeps existing

in a gerund state a process

state a state that requires

you yes you ( ! ) to

keep it live

keep it doing

keep starting it and keep it

able to be started

Slowly I think I’m

starting Starting

to start To start a thinking

To start us

In many ways the book is like

all manuals It has

instructions and suggestions

It has parameters

considerations and possible

arrangements Also it ha-

ppens to be a very beautiful

book Granary could not have

done a better

job at

reproducing things like A Vocabulary

for Sharon Belle Mattlin or A

Notated Vocabulary for Eve

Rosenthal 5/22-25 /78 and the

cd oh the c d !

To have all these performances

ranging from ’73 to

2000 is a gift So

what with cd performance

scores instructions and

the poet’s very own commentary

we have something more

something more than

just a manual we have a

workbook in the vein of

those issued in foreign

language study More

texts that require us require

our input and with our every

input we learn how to do

a thing a little more The

difference being this workbook

is always un- finished because there

are always any number

of answers yet to be

discovered Slowly I think

I’m starting Starting

To start To start a thinking