In 1956 Richard Hamilton created the iconic and trendsetting Pop Art collage "Just What is it That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?" (Kunsthalle, Tubingen). In deciding elements to include he formed a list: "Woman Food History Newspapers Cinema Domestic appliances Cars Space Comics TV Telephone Information". In 2010 I created this poetry collection for Richard Hamilton. Read the poems here:

JUST
WHAT
IS
IT?

13 POEMS
INSPIRED BY
RICHARD
HAMILTON

WOMAN

Woman sits
for the artist
he whom every-
one wants
a piece of,
including her.

If he could
collage himself
things would be
easier.

FOOD

paint an apple
and paint a
fly on it

without it the
apple is an
apple

in the sky
the fly is a
fly

but together:
art

HISTORY

Bodybuilder
required:
must be able
to hold a
lollipop for
eternity

and the weight
of the world.

Broad shoulders
a prerequisite:
the History of
Art is a
heavy burden.

NEWSPAPERS

No point
Even thinking about it
Whatever
Sentences they
Print
Art will
Plough its furrow
Ever onwards
Regardless of the
Shit

CINEMA

never wanted
to start a
Movement, just
wanted to set
things in motion,
still ...

DOMESTIC APPLIANCES

Wanted a Koons hoover
waited in line for a long time

until the end of time
when the zombies overran
the town

and everything collapsed
and crazed souls rushed past
and it was mine at last

for the art of cleaning.

CARS

a poem not about
its subject is an
exotic beast and
should be preserved
in a book, for sure,
and preferably one
with Dadaist tendencies

SPACE

1961 when I was born
going into space was a
dream one had from the
womb on

1922, now there's a
year to be born
coming to life with Ulysses
and Eliot's great poem

COMICS

Ten great smells
in no particular order:

Freshly ground coffee
Frangipani
Oil paint
Rock chicks
Wine

Tide going out
Rain new fallen
Woodsmoke
Comics
Pine

TV

There's Dad
with no teeth
painted in my memory
like the last time I saw him
in his care home
with the TV playing
toothlessly to
his empty gums.

TELEPHONE

Saw a painting of
a telephone hanging on
a wall the other day

waited to answer it
but it didn't ring.

INFORMATION

Great knowing nothing
and not knowing that
knowing nothing
is not a thing to get
het up about

great knowing everything
and being God

shit being in the
middle.

JUST WHAT IS IT?

that makes the world go round
and before you say it I know
the question mark is in the wrong
place, but that is also the
answer: that we can put
the question mark in the wrong
place and the world goes
round because we can