The energy of the looped music clip and the whimsically tactile image of its title set the tone for a poem (or 43 quintillion poems) composed of lines about human relationships, spaces in buildings, medical procedures, books, computers, and more.
Jason Nelson frames this poem as a mature cube interface poem, and it is difficult to disagree, when juxtaposed with his earlier work in this vein “The Poetry Cube.” The cube interface is more polished in its physicality as a manipulable three dimensional object, with Rubik’s Cube dynamics that allow for up to 4.3×1019 possible permutations of its 42 lines and 12 videos. Each face is preset with a color for its numbered lines of verse and short looping video clips of some sort of movement (on foot, by bus, in a car) in an urban setting.
How does one approach a work that one would need to dedicate lifetimes to recombining in the attempt of reading every possible permutation? The Rubik’s cube itself provides some answers: you play with it while it’s fun, while the discovery of fresh combinations, patterns, and completions yield rewards. This poetry cube is given to us “solved” after all— since all the sides have complete colors from the outset— so it is up to us to take the lines apart and see what other combinations we might make to reach moments of insight.