Hypothesizing “What is a poem?”

In the piece “What is a poem?” from Anarchism is Not Enough, Laura Riding writes: “A poem is nothing. By persistence the poem can be made something; but then it is something, not a poem. Why is it nothing? Because it cannot be looked at, heard, touched or read (what can be read is prose).” According to Riding, a poem becomes prose the moment that it is measured by any form of observation.

Perhaps an experiment can be conducted that will test Riding’s hypothesis; apparently, a poem is “nothing” for the same reason that, according to Quantum Theory, an electron will behave like a wave until it is observed and then it will behave like a particle. That was proven using the Two Slit Experiment. I am researching digital poetics and experimenting with algorithms to generate poetry to explore the possibilities of another hypothesis for “what is a poem?” that better parallels Quantum Theory. Discovering parallels to Quantum Theory may illuminate new aspects of the theory therefore progressing electronic communication systems and technologies (Tomorrow’s Technologies).