One
in this room
there are no women
as well as me
there are 32 men
except me
most of them
are mostly18-19 years
quite young
straggly hair
spiky unwashed behated
some stubbly
soft eggshell
spots and mustaches
all sniffing
but soft malleable faces
you can almost see
the person trying to emerge
the being creeping out
shaping the bones
as it hatches
hair style or clothes
does not achieve this
the face emerges regardless
but for men this does not happen
until at least in their twenties
despite the muscle and bone
I didn't loose my youth
it was mislaid
I thought I still had it
but it become something else
people concentrating
give off a lot of heat
hotter and humider
the windows are misting up
when we are allowed to leave
we will not be able
to see out of the four large windows
through which we overlook
a small badly kept courtyard
a pair of dunnocks
weeds ragwort mostly
live here although
hypericum and
to me
unknown bushes
are trying very hard
dunnock realm
peopless
free from society
or free from the
realisation of society
dunnock society instead
I can chatter my teeth
with the rest of them
with the person comes a face
as I understand the big question
you cannot tame it for long
it never was tame anyway
you were shutting your eyes to the wilderness
the analogue clock cyclically catches up
the digital clock which is a little fast
every minute for a while
they almost tell the same time
Two
ixn the room today
there are 38 people
one of them is a woman
they are all at least
two years older than
the group of 2 days ago
somewhere the mountains are covered in snow
leopards prowl just below the snowline
here
the hills are lush green and damp
difference
has been made
faces are more or less
hatched
here are people
with characters in the room
lower down there is a lake
there are monsters
in the fabric of the water
insubstantial terrors lurk
between unimaginable molecules
you can realise worse than your fears
seriousness of purpose
everyone is here
people and styles of clothes
and hair begin
to agree and
enhance each other
in the room
no one has a digital watch
over half
have analogues with
shiny wrist straps
hands creeping round the time
I have a digital wristwatch
stop watch calculator
what does this make me?
no one today
is sniffing
another sign
when is history
different from the past
did people first emerge
does a handaxe make a person
now people emerge
in their teens and twenties
but was there a time
when there was a species
were species of humans
from which people did not emerge
to have different types of people
then there must also have been
different completenesses of people
a society complete
with relatively complete people
to complete and satisfy
the needs of that society
who thought society was
as a result of people or
despite people
before people emerged in the valley
there was a village to fill
the people filled the village as they built it
their society was there
to be completed
this only when
the beasts of the lake were tamed
within the molecular societies of the lake
apart from me
only 5 of the men
have beards
people in my profession
seem to
the idleness of mine
of the boredom with shaving
we are not afraid of the snow leopard
keeps well clear
taking stragglers from the flock
that he had few friends in the pool
and would talk to us
he came to be a whirlwind in the society of dust
the moment when observation
switches to contemplation
when the big idea emerges
time to live inside your head
the emergence of people
the celebration of difference
realising society with differences
complex and or complete the more
complete and or complex
the society realised
there must be variation
the society of enforced non-interaction
rules this room
temporarily
the big idea is
people emerging
not the nature of society
which is inseparably maybe
becoming the ambiguity of people
the result of each other
common skills usage
walking talking interacting
then also begins to emerge
the basic personality
argumentative passive thoughtful selfish
this is not he person
who is a long time coming
on the basic person-ality
is what you are born
influenced by all you can become
Three
in what used to be
the music room
there is still a piano stool
in the room today
there are a number of women
these are mostly 18-19 year olds
quite clearly defining people
the first group being a special case perhaps
exactly when
does peopleness break out
of course it is emerging
continuously not a discrete event
one moment not present there
the next or some subsequent moment
there is never a unique next moment
for humans this is so
as not for
some very small events
peopleness is an analogue event
occurring one day you are sure
it has arrived but you cannot
when it was exactly
when it wasn't exactly
whether or not peopleness
occurs in animals
the first big question
springs to mind today
something beyond catness for cats
beyond the species characteristic
chimpness for chimps
the character of the cat
that makes the individual
way of interacting with others
people have individuality
as do cats and chimps
is this the same as peopleness
grief
a sense of history
belonging
knowing that belonging
being
knowingly mistaken
ambition ideals
a sense of future
the abstraction of instinct
mental anguish
these the desire
need the effect
sense of our own emerging
becoming possible histories
making things for the future
is not as
termites and ants do this
without perhaps
designing and planning
testing possible structures
determining designs
fit for purpose
the abstraction of construction
the cosmos
my minds eye
in a nut shell
models the universe
set of equations
pie chart graph
table of fluctuations
spread sheet
counting
the abstraction of multiplicity
clothing
the abstraction of plumage
coinage
the abstraction of sharing
haircuts tattoos perspiring
shaving plastic surgery
self-image
the abstraction of being
soon they will be missing me
at their meeting
I am trapped in here
out of a sense of duty
Four
the same rules apply
there are 37 people
in the room today
3 of these people
3 young men
are unexpected
we started early
because of this
we are both men
almost half of the rest
are women
have different backs to men
the difference between the sexes
but is the real question
the difference between people
these people seem full of character
are conscious individuals
mostly having style
there is no sniffing
they seem civilised
are people emerging
the competitive advantage
of being a complete person
being an adaptable person
being many people
being able
to become many people
as a species of humanoids
but not people
does being a person
mean being
consciously aware of it
of thinking
and reflecting on it
of consciously changing
or at least
to appear to be
new people
person
the abstraction of individual
despite the many
faces hairstyles glasses
spectacle of the same individual
by the nature of personhood
one individual is
not always the same person
bodily
the individual is singular
but personhood
by its very nature
a body individual has
many personalities
which go to make
the people who inhabit it
who would like me to be
the wonderful thing
about personhood
the number of possibilities
incalculable and
probable uncountable
the physical difference
between body individuals
the differences between people
between each person's people
cultural diversity
interdependence
the flexible response
the problems many
of which are created
by the set of people
the origins of
the emergence of people
the increasing complexity
of societies cultural
diversity requires different
many types of people
to manage to solve
the wealth of problems
defence and military tactics
food distribution and shop fronts
health and staying at work
trade and the train
navigation and accountancy
building and civic identity
furniture and career progression
in the clearing
we gradually become visible
are seen to emerge
from the thick of it
from the growth of the mass
and the possibility and
decline and decay
in the clearing are humans
people who are unafraid
to be seen by others
less willing to become
conspicuous instinct
tells us to beware of clearings
predators go looking
for what clearings have to offer
sometime it is clear and
sometimes it is not
at the time
no one would have noticed
would have to become
more sophisticated to
evolve to higher
sophistication before becoming
able to think back and say
that was when we emerged
that was when
they were first people
some people like their rules
to follow them
delight in the power
they engender
while others see
rules as clarifications
of purpose there to
achieve purpose but to be
broken when the purpose is in danger
or the purpose is the danger
a glance across the clearing
can tell you much
life in the clearing
but the clearing can change
can move or reshape
the act and place of clearing
Five
the scattered beasts
hoof clicks and
heel prints
the latch bolts and
sounds alarms now
herd it all before
the concept of person and
people being different
the person becoming
the individual breaking out
people becoming
the concept apparent
could be many individuals
emerging or
people
the abstraction of person
not the simple plural
on the train
sitting down
I have territory and
can observe the passers by
though not too closely
walking down the carriage
I have left my territory
but have authority
because I stand upright
walking looking down
I am asserting myself
taking risks to the buffet car
either way detailed
scrutiny is frowned on
if discovered
back in my territory
the woman diagonally opposite
who might be an Oxford don(k)
the station we recently stopped at
is breaking this rule
accidental staring fascination
accident of proximity
the need to write poems
the despicable arrogance of poets
stereotyping the passer by
categorising at a glance
to invest person over the body individual
observed whether
charicature or genuine individual
this is a dictatorship
trying to imagine a person
from their appearance
day dreaming is one thing perhaps
writing and publishing this activity as a poem
is a dictatorship
I reflex at my own expense
what of the impression made
the essence of a life
society is what we make of each other
true society is making this positive
becoming people through social interaction
not necessarily the people
we think we are or
the people we would like
to be seen becoming or
the people we actually are
if that can be
but the people
others construct of us
we construct of them
I have to make you all up
the more I have to know you
there are thus many more people
than there are body individuals
than we are or would like
to be or can become
society
the abstraction of people
the most interesting question
was not perhaps
of becoming people
but the social concept
of people emerging
the former identified
briefly considered the latter
perhaps the first to emerge in essence
grew stronger became
the overpowering consideration
the instinct to abstract
enough information
determine the people of the animal
moving purposefully
unconcerned
down the panelled track
people are becoming animals
there is a need to pursue