“It. That’s it. That started it. It is. Goes on. Moves. Beyond. Becomes. Becomes it and it and it. Goes further than that. Becomes something else. Becomes more. Combines something else with more to keep becoming something else and more. Goes further than that. Becomes something besides something else and more. Something. Something new. Newer still. In the next now, becomes as new as it now can be. Imposes itself. Flaunts itself. Touches, is touched. Catches free material. Grows bigger and bigger. Builds itself up by being more than itself, gains weight, gains speed, gains more in its rush, gains on something else, passes something else, which is taken up, taken in, fast laden with what came first, so randomly begun. That’s it. So changed now that it’s begun. So transformed. Already a difference between it and it, for nothing is what it was. Already time between it and it, here and there, then and now. Already the span of space between it and something else, it and more, it and something, something new, which now, in this now, already has been, in the next now is and goes on. Moves. Fills. Is already enough itself for inside to differ from outside. Plays, shifts, eddies. Outside. And condenses inside. Gains core and substance. Gains surface, refractions, passages, impediments, stimuli among separate parts, free turbulence. Takes a turn, a whole new turn. Turns and twists, is turned and twisted. And pursues an evolution. Seeks a form. Scans its past. Twist after twist takes a different twist. Is picked up to be dealt with again. Turn after turn is rephrased. Gains structure in its ceaseless search for structure. Variations inside fed on matter from outside. Changes character. Localizes needs, divides existing functions into new ones, functions so it can function. Functions so something else can function and because something else functions. In each function a need for new functions, new variations.”

Excerpt from “it” by Inger Christensen