\documentclass[a4paper,twoside, openany]{book}
%% "openany" allows for chapters on odd pages, it would leave a blank page otherwise
%% maybe in the future centering will be fixed
\usepackage{hyperref}
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\makeatother

%% I just want stuff to be centered

\newenvironment{Verse}
  {\center\varwidth{\linewidth}\fontsize{18}{21.6}\selectfont}
  {\endvarwidth\endcenter}
%% verse but centered and bigger
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
  {\normalfont\filcenter\bfseries}{}{0pt}{\Huge}
\renewcommand{\contentsname}{Table of Contents}
\hypersetup{colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue,urlcolor=blue}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\font\mytitle=cmr12 at 40pt
\newcommand{\MONTH}{%
  \ifcase\the\month
  \or January% 1
  \or February% 2
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  \fi}
%% Month of compilation
\title{\mytitle Alembic}
\author{Mattia Mascarello}
\date{}
%% I don't want that in the title
\frontmatter

\maketitle

\pagestyle{empty}
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\footnotesize
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CC BY-SA 4.0 \the\year{} Mattia Mascarello\\

    Distribuited under the \href{https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/}{"Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) "} license

    Poems by Mattia Mascarello


\vfill

\begin{center}
Anywhere the wind blows
\end{center}


\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ll}
Current Edition: \MONTH  \space \the\year
\end{tabular}
\end{center}

\vfill

Mattia Mascarello, \\
Alba (CN), Italy \\
\href{mailto:mattia.mascarello@outlook.it}{mattia.mascarello@outlook.it}\\
\href{https://github.com/MatMasIt}{Github}\\
\href{https://t.me/matmasak}{Telegram}



\vspace*{2\baselineskip}
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%% inscription
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\begin{center}
Thanks to Eva Gotta
\end{center}
\clearpage


%%preface
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\textbf{Preface}\\
My stream of thought is stored in this container as I progress to read it
Essentially, a collection
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%%empty page
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\end{center}
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\tableofcontents
\mainmatter


%% Start of poems

\chapter{Cogs}
\begin{Verse}
    Cogs of Ice\\
    Tick and Slide\\
    Subdivide the Time in Time\\
    Slow or steady to demise\\
    Who shall melt and who shall dance\\
    On the thin floor of life?
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Parcel}
\begin{Verse}
    Wherever may I find my body wandering and where I lay my hand\\
    A lone and unknown land\\
    Just follows me and never leaves\\
    Oh when has this begun?\\

    To them I say let there be \\
    a land I know and love\\
    and not the parcel nature gave\\
    to spare with me alone.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Rolls}
\begin{Verse}
    An old typewriter lies on the desk\\
    Rolls of types and rolls of life\\
    the impression of a hot coffee\\
    on a cloudy morning\\
    and the prints of a dead hand.\\
    Oh young age, regret and retribution\\
    The keys' noise covers my thought\\
    and the noise that I bear inside.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Friction}
\begin{Verse}
    Friction\\
    Friction\\
    Metal scraping\\
    Glass beheading\\
    Where we’re heading?\\
    Sleep and\\
    tick and\\
    turn and\\
    twist and \\
    walk and\\
    sit, for what?\\
    Desist?\\
    Your calculations\\
    fail.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Machines}
\begin{Verse}
    Polygons of vision\\
    A field of empty vectors\\
    Directed to imperfection\\
    Escape your judgment\\
    Machines of flesh\\
    Which make machines\\
    For this you see\\
    'tis what thee be.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{OK}
\begin{Verse}
    Ok\\
    Why?\\
    OK\\
    What does it mean?\\
    What do you mean?\\
    This is ridiculous\\
    Ok\\
    The alarm is sounding\\
    Ok\\
    For well you see the waste this\\
    all\
    be\\
    O\\
    K.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Masters of Doubt}
\begin{Verse}
    Do you feel good?\\
    Do you feel fine?\\
    What must be word\\
    that you make so flag of yourself\\
    When you proceed\\
    To bury the dead.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Second Line}
\begin{Verse}
    Buffer of thought\\
    Distilled and saw\\
    It keeps bouncing inside\\
    Until you drown it in fire.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Steam}
\begin{Verse}
    Steam, fire, electricity\\
    Some machines feed on it\\
    Some machines die on it\\
    All walk on the ribbon\\
    It goes extremely wide.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Imaginary}
\begin{Verse}
    Flow\\
    Fly\\
    In the sky\\
    Slowly tired\\
    Not explored anything\\
    Neither being admired\\
    But still\\
    You may try.
\end{Verse}
\chapter{Sweden}
\begin{Verse}
    What shall say thee?\\
    2418\\
    Walk to the beam\\
    Shines so lightly\\
    Moves so brightly\\
    When you’ll think then\\
    Don’t complain me\\
    For what I see\\
    Is the most wide sea.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Contempt}
\begin{Verse}
    Acknowledge it!\\
    Acknowledge it yourself\\
    The forces that behind you\\
    are pushing your contempt\\
    You see someone up there\\
    but no-one but yourself\\
    You think the freest free is what\\
    the heat has quickly fled\\
    No intention to assimilate\\
    let alone to adjudicate\\
    The superstructure of your thought\\
    is laid upon bones.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Resonance}
\begin{Verse}
    Glaring eyes to the public\\
    you notice something:\\
    an entity which resonates\\
    the same frequency as you\\
    Be sure as well to keep in phase\\
    that’s what you’re going to do\\
    because if not you know that, too\\
    you’ll cancel whole in two.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Beat}
\begin{Verse}
    Beat him!
    No, don’t despair\\ 
    There’s always a second place for losers,\\
    that’s hell\\
    Beat her!\\
    Look at your foe in the eyes\\
    You might both as well call it a tie\\
    For in this fight the only winner is who doesn't cry.\\
    Was that anytime?\\
    Well, everyone stops fighting when they die.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Walk}
\begin{Verse}
    Walk downtown,\\
    looking around\\
    The movement, the sound\\
    The rubble on the ground\\
    changing\\
    slowly chaining\\
    Men walking in the snow\\
    Where do they go?\\
    What do they know?\\
    A solitary chimney\\
    Is coughing up some smoke\\
    You sit on the edge of the plane\\
    Which separates from them all.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Act}
\begin{Verse}
    A close call\\
    It’s ringing\\
    You might as well pick up your phone\\
    Oh, look, it’s your friend\\
    He’s asking what you’ve done\\
    Interact is all you do,\\
    It flows inside everyone and all\\
    What did you make of it?
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Bell}
\begin{Verse}
    Rain and Snow\\
    Outside a shell of shells\\
    So while outside it’s cold as hell\\
    You ring the bell, for dinner’s served\\
    However don’t rejoice so much\\
    because you it’s not for you to know\\
    what then you’ll tell.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Blue}
\begin{Verse}
    Looking in the eyes\\
    the broadcast just begun\\
    for there's some connection\\
    which requires no waveform\\
    oscillators dance, that's sure\\
    but what might they do\\
    when the only station I am tuning in\\
    is you.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Red}
\begin{Verse}
    What Irony of a substance,\\
    powering such squalor\\
    mess of cogs and sweat\\
    But when the oil leaks\\
    the pain deceives\\
    that friction's gone.\\
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Casino}
\begin{Verse}
    Wait\\
    This game is rigged!\\
    What did you expect?\\
    Someone's gonna have to finance\\
    heaven and hell.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{War}
\begin{Verse}
    Go away and come\\
    command\\
    sustain\\
    engage\\
    and train\\
    terrain\\
    TERRAIN\\
    TERRAIN!
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Trees}
\begin{Verse}
    Hands in air\\
    fog is there\\
    dark and light\\
    all perspires\\
    when you're there.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Violet}
\begin{Verse}
    Violet, light blue\\
    you know the\\
    address, too\\
    the corners of\\
    the world are\\
    shining there\\
    for you.\\
    Even when your soul denies\\
    you're bound\\
    by what's outside.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Reflection}
\begin{Verse}
    Eyes stare at\\
    eyes\\
    The same soul inside\\
    yet shall we say\\
    we feel afraid, insane.
\end{Verse}


\chapter{Smile}
\begin{Verse}
    A symile of smiles, emerged\\
    from what seemed\\
    like crying.\\
    Despair may be\\
    a pretty fun affair.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Tear}
\begin{Verse}
    Tear, torn, cut apart\\
    select your product from\\
    the list\\
    a little scalpel\\
    may fix that\\
    but what lays on the floor\\
    is hard to reattach 
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Void}
\begin{Verse}
    Beyond black\\
    beyond white\\ 
    beyond cubes\\
    beyond lights\\
    beyond love\\
    beyond lies\\
    it's not just what\\
    hearth and mind deny\\
    it's what thy were\\
    and thy shall be.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Dust}
\begin{Verse}
    Writings on a wall\\
    a tree and its\\
    snow\\
    What acheivement do you keep\\
    in your mind and in your soul?\\
    Many speakers of all minds\
    fly and dance will\\
    tonight\\
    While the dust settles\\
    inside.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Buyeth}
\begin{Verse}
   To everybody's contempt\\
   today is the event\\
   The day when you must pay\\
   for the uncherished bliss\\
   we all have been denying\\
   before it was taken by\\
   fire.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Gates}
\begin{Verse}
   Bad,unjust\\
   war and lust\\
   we shall decide\\
   what you be must\\
   Dancing as a dancer\\
   Sleeping as a sleepr\\
   Heat,\\
   speeding cars,\\
   metal and wooden planks\\
   Your nature shall not stand\\
   where we not demand.
\end{Verse}

\chapter{Sweat}
\begin{Verse}
    Brick and bells\\
    On which an old man leans\\
    Not tired by age,\\
    but by life's appeal\\
    For who lives in a dream is sleeping\\
    and thus he's keeeping\\
    his life of sweat.
\end{Verse}
\end{document}
