Grapefruit: Yoko Ono’s Poems, Drawings, and Instructions for Life
“A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.”
By Maria Popova
In 1964, more than a decade after the publication of her tender story An Invisible Flower, Yoko Ono collected a selection of her poetic meditations on life in a small but whimsical book published in Tokyo in a limited edition of 500. More than thirty years later, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (public library) — part irreverent activity book for grown-ups, part subversive philosophy for life — was republished, with a new introduction by Ono herself. Here’s just a small taste of this immensely delightful tiny treasure:
A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.
It’s sad that the air is the only thing we share.
No matter how close we get to each other,
there is always air between us.
It’s also nice that we share the air,
No matter how far apart we are
the air links us.
from Lisson Gallery brochure ’67
Instead of obtaining a mirror,
obtain a person.
Look into him.
Use different people.
Old, young, fat, small, etc.
Draw an imaginary map.
Put a goal mark on the map where you
want to go.
Go walking on an actual street according
to your map.
If there is no street where it should be
according to the map, make one by putting
the obstacles aside.
When you reach the goal, ask the name of
the city and give flowers to the first
person you meet.
The map must be followed exactly, or the
event has to be dropped altogether.
Ask your friends to write maps.
Give your friends maps.
Step in all the puddles in the city.
Visual world not exactly shaped —
Sense of smell, anticipation, senses that
are not exactly shaped —
Dark shadows casted —
Rat colors with faint hairly smells and pale
dark spots like those on a transparent sheet
of celluloid —
Rose color with a glitter and softness that
is cool and motional —
The kind of color that does not exist by
itself but only when it is casted between
two moving objects —
The color like a remaining stain of illusion
on a moving object —
The color that only happens when movements
cut the air in a certain way and go immediately.
Use such color to tint your absent thoughts.
Have absent thoughts for a long time.
Published October 30, 2012