Using the numerical structure of pi, Mechanophilia is a collaborative epic by American poet Vi Khi Nao and Canadian poet Sarah Burgoyne (who have never met) that follows the omniscient conversations and complaints of ad hoc biblical characters as they attempt to make sense of themselves on an ordered, disordered planet. The first of four volumes completed so far, Mechanophilia represents the first 3,000 decimal places of pi. Anachronistic in proportion, this work attempts to queer and rewrite myths in precise numerical pi chronology, yet its verses remain free and ludic, time-travelling at will and often looping in present-day concerns and figures (Lady Gaga, Elon Musk, Cai Guo-Qiang, Donald Trump, Phoebe Philo, Ryuichi Sakamoto). Mechanophilia presents infinity as something reachable yet unrelated to linear time.
A FEED DOG BOOK.
PRAISE FOR SARAH BURGOYNE’S BECAUSE THE SUN “It is so rare that a book of poems is both a tuning fork for our minds as well as a balm for our bodies. But that is exactly what happens page after page in this blazing book.” —Michael Dickman
“Sarah Burgoyne begins with the sun and ends with flowers. In between is a complicated exploration of what it means to exist within a tradition that is Camus, Rimbaud, Blake. Taking her cue from Sara Ahmed, she notices how hard it is to challenge this tradition and yet that it matters to do it anyway.” —Juliana Spahr
PRAISE FOR VI KHI NAO’S PREVIOUS WORKS
“We are no longer used to the heart’s engine revving with such quiet, lonely, insistent, anatomical intensity. Not so many people have travelled in Vi Khi Nao’s language mind before. Here is your ticket, a vagrant fragrance.” —C. D. Wright
“Vi Khi Nao is making it new, no, she is doing the old job of making us see what’s already here in a new way. We’re already part of the bunny-frog and the sheep machine and we’re feeling fine. This is bold, fresh, necessary work.” —Rae Armantrout
