I
was cutting burlap sacks the whole day, beautiful June day. In the
shade of silently whispering ash tree. In the ceaseless bird
chirping.
One hundred and two sacks. When I cut them in half I will have two hundred four sheet one meter long each. On one hundred nineteen sheets I will paint a letter – a white letter on one side and a black letter on the other side of the sheet. In seventy five sheets letters will be cut – I will cut one letter in one burlap sheet. There will be ten sheets left. That's good. It may happen I make a mistake. All sheets will be hung on the roof truss in an abandon post-industrial space. Seven rows of seventeen sheets with letters painted on them and in the aisles six rows of sheets with letters cut in them – the sheets with cut letters will be placed at right angle to the sheets with painted letters. All sheets will hang right above a head. (The counting refers to the Polish language only.)
One hundred and two sacks. When I cut them in half I will have two hundred four sheet one meter long each. On one hundred nineteen sheets I will paint a letter – a white letter on one side and a black letter on the other side of the sheet. In seventy five sheets letters will be cut – I will cut one letter in one burlap sheet. There will be ten sheets left. That's good. It may happen I make a mistake. All sheets will be hung on the roof truss in an abandon post-industrial space. Seven rows of seventeen sheets with letters painted on them and in the aisles six rows of sheets with letters cut in them – the sheets with cut letters will be placed at right angle to the sheets with painted letters. All sheets will hang right above a head. (The counting refers to the Polish language only.)
A
cloud of letters above your head.
To
read the sentence composed of the white letters you will have to walk
along the first row from the left to the right and then along the
second row from the right to the left and so on up to end of the
seventh row.W
H A T
A P I T Y C L O U D S A R E
N O T M A D E O F M I L K A N D R A I N
D R O P S A R E N O T C O C O A
G R A I N S – T H E N M U D W O U L D
B E C H O C O L A T E O R I C E
C R E A M D E S S E R T
W I T H F R U I T S O F T H E S K Y
N O T M A D E O F M I L K A N D R A I N
D R O P S A R E N O T C O C O A
G R A I N S – T H E N M U D W O U L D
B E C H O C O L A T E O R I C E
C R E A M D E S S E R T
W I T H F R U I T S O F T H E S K Y
The black D will be on the other side of the last sheet with the white Y. Again you will have to walk along the rows from left to the right and from the right to the left or make a boustrophedonic walk.
H O W G O O D C L O U D S A R E
N O T M A D E O F M I L K A N D R A I N
D R O P S A R E N O T C O C O A
G R A I N S – T H E N M U D D O E S
N O T I M I T A T E C H O L O L A T E
A N D F R O M T H E S K Y G L A Z E D
H A I L F A L L S O N Y O U R H E A D
While the cut letters in the rows in the aisles will be alternately composed in two words:
C
L O U D Y
S U N N Y
S U N N Y
It's very complex. There are things even more complex. However there are things less complex.
The way of the burlap sacks was also very complex. At first they were brought here from the Ivory Coast and were full of cocoa grain. I don't know what happened then. In the end they came to me and were full of sawdust briquette. Four tons. I'm not that crazy to heat my house with cocoa grain. While I'd like very much to heat myself with cocoa. I like hot cocoa very much.
These sacks are different than the ones I had before. Those were burlap too, but were woven more tightly. Most probably they came from India. With no doubt were used for transporting tea. Of course this does not mean I bought several tons of tea for winter. I like tea very much and very often I warm up and cool down my body and mind with tea. Especially with green tea. First of all with green tea. I like green tea very much.
I don't remember what happened to those sacks. Probably they got wet and decayed. I rescued some of them. I dyed them very dark green and deep red and I use them for bookbinding. Such covers are very nice but not easy to be made. Burlap is thick and doesn't glue well. The new burlap is woven not tightly enough and can't be used for bookbinding. But it can be used for a flying poem. It is cocoa colour.
Such
thoughts had been swarming in my head for some days. Then, for some
other days I was painting letters and hanging them. The flying poem
is ready now. But it does not fly. Sometimes sparrows fly through it
like through a cloud. Sometimes people visit it. They seem a bit less
stray than birds. Maybe a bit more surprised that it's so easy to
walk having the head in the cocoa cloud.
