Article V
Irreversibility
commitment
Ratified
Predictive Poetry depends upon committed choices.
A word may present many possible continuations, but once a path is chosen, that choice becomes part of the work. What follows must respond to what has actually been made, not to every alternative that might have been.
Irreversibility gives a trace its history. It preserves consequence, allows surprise to accumulate, and turns a sequence of possibilities into an authored work.
Revision may clarify presentation, but it should not erase the decisions through which the work came into being.
The value of a continuation lies partly in what it excludes.
To proceed is to accept that another path has been left behind.