penclos

a commonplace book of impossible things

scroll to open the notebook

fig. i see also: p.47 first opened 1923

Index of Contents

  • On the Nature of Ink3
  • Diagrams of Thought17
  • Letters Never Sent34
  • Botanical Observations51
  • The Geometry of Gardens78

CATALOGUE NO. 7721

ACQUIRED: UNKNOWN

CONDITION: ACTIVELY DETERIORATING

"Every garden is a theory of the world made visible."

— found written in margins, hand unknown

Diagrams of Thought

convergence

The three circles represent memory, imagination, and observation. Where they overlap is where writing happens.

f(x) = ∫ memory · imagination dx

where observation → ∞

Letters Never Sent

14 March, 19—

Dear —,

I have enclosed the garden as you suggested. The walls are made of sentences now, each brick a word carefully chosen for its weight and color. The gate opens only when read aloud, and even then, only at certain hours.

The pen has become a trowel. I plant paragraphs in rows and wait for them to bloom into meaning.

Yours in ink,
—

UNDELIVERABLE 1923

The Geometry of Gardens

An enclosure need not be a prison. The penclos — the written garden — grows precisely because it has borders. Every margin is a trellis.

penclos

SPECIES: Scriptum perenne

HABITAT: Margins, gutters, endpapers

BLOOM: Perpetual (when read)

Colophon

This notebook continues to write itself.

penclos.com — an enclosure for writing

The last page is always blank, waiting.