Grapefruit by Yoko Ono

I finished reading Grapefruit by Yoko Ono.

I read it in an afternoon and have since gone back to it to reread sections. I absorbed it like a sponge. I copied parts out of it to muse about further.

It is so different from anything else I have ever read.

It is a book of ‘instructions’, written as poems. They are simple and pleasing, short and powerful. There are instructions for creating music or paintings and other art 'pieces', some impossible, some bizarre, some painful,  some profound, and all intriguing. As you read the book, you start thinking in a new way. You start seeing the world around you, and the way you interact with it, differently.

This book encourages you to think more simply, and think towards peace - peace of mind, and peace with others. I’d encourage everyone to pick this book up and read it. (Yoko said to burn it afterwards, but I skipped that part.)

Here are some of my favorite parts:

WATCH
Go to the nearest fountain
and watch the water dance

COUNT
count the clouds
name them

CLOCK PIECE
Steal all the clocks and watches
In the world.
Destroy them.

MIRROR PIECE
Instead of obtaining a mirror,
obtain a person.
Look into him.
Use different people.
Old, young, fat, small, etc. 

SLEEPING PIECE I
Write all the things you want to do.
Ask others to do them and sleep
until they finish them.
Sleep as long as you can.
SLEEPING PIECE II
Write all the things you intend to do.
Show that to somebody.
Let him sleep for you until you
finish doing them.
Do for as long as you can.  

A GIRL IN SUNSET
A beautiful thing happened to
a girl in sunset.
It was so beautiful she couldn’t
get over it for a long time.
In fact, she’s still going around
soaked in the same evening light –
carrying her orange past.
In daytime she looks like a cutout
from a Grand Canyon postcard.
At night she glows.
Then she’s heard of a guy carrying
rain around him.

All poems from Grapefruit by Yoko Ono.