please give us a poetic act!

on 12 june 2021, h.c. artmann would celebrate his 100th birthday - if he had not passed away 21 years ago. since its beginnings, h.c. artmann was closely connected to the vienna poetry school as a teacher. he held his classes preferably at the café hummel, but he also gave one of the first online classes at sfd. because of this long standing connection with h.c. artmann we dare to scrounge something off you, in memorian:

please give us an approximation to the poetic act! an approximation, because it is characterised by, amongst others, its refusal to be quoted second hand, that is to say, it rejects every mediation by speech, music or the printed word.¹ therefore, it can only be a compromise, a close contact at best.

give us a photo, a drawing, an object. lend us a secret number, a yet unknown letter, a one-liner that was forgotten under the bed. we are grateful for descriptions of poetic acts, as long as they don't end up as vain poetic art. we are looking forward to memories, preserved on torn audio tapes or collected in old shoe boxes...
there are no limits to the connection of the poetic act.

at the moment we don't know what we will do will all those poetic acts - it will depend on the total amount of poetic acts we'll receive: if they'll fill a gigantic encyclopedia or a pitiful flyer.

fritz ostermayer
for the vienna poetry school

contact: sfd@sfd.at

>> h. c. artmann: acht-punkte-proklamation des poetischen actes (1953) (pdf download, in german) (eight point proclamation of the poetic act)
(¹ for an english translation of h.c. artmann's acht punkte proklamation des poetischen actes refer to: Rothenberg, J., Joris, P., Robinson, J.C. (ed.). Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry Volume Two: From Postwar to Millennium. (Univ of California Press, 1998), pp. 116-17.)

h. c. artmann (1921–2000) & sfd

>> https://sfd.at/lehren-und-lernen/faculty/h.c-artmann

>> htps://archiv.sfd.at/artmann/index1.html