language paradox

For the poet the language paradox is that it is the way and it's what gets in the way.

splendid poverties

I remember lying in a ditch and staring at some pebbles while German bombers were flying over our heads. That was long ago, I don’t remember the face of my mother nor the faces of the people who were with us, but I still see those perfectly ordinary pebbles.
[…]
The pebbles stayed in their otherness, stayed forever in memory. Can language do justice to such moments of heightened consciousness? Speech is always less. When it comes to conveying what it means to be truly conscious, one approximates, one fails miserably.

Wittgenstein puts it this way: “What finds its reflection in language, language cannot represent. What expresses ‘itself’ in language, we cannot express by means of language. This has been my experience many times. Words are impoverishments, splendid poverties.

—Charles Simic, “Reading Philosophy at Night,” The Life of Images: Selected Prose (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2015)

press gang

Treating words like a press gang, he wrote with a lash and cattle prod.

self-inflicted extinction

Certain words, having an excess of syllables, or being ill-melodious or seeming contrary to their definitions, drive their own extinction within the language. [‘cachinnate’ for example]

new word to me

"Epeolatry," or the worship of words, embodies a profound reverence for language and its intricacies. This concept highlights the beauty, power, and significance of words in human expression and communication. Those who practice epeolatry often appreciate the nuances of language, celebrating its ability to inspire, connect, and transform. This admiration can manifest in various forms, such as collecting poetry, studying linguistics, or engaging in deep discussions about literary works. Ultimately, epeolatry emphasizes the importance of words not just as tools for communication, but as objects of devotion that shape our understanding of the world.

[from the Word Trivia site.]

thrill ride

The poem was an amusement park of language thrill rides.

language unleashed

The poem being a force of language.

must be precise

#61
Because poetry must use language, which is inherently opaque and unstable, it has to be more precise than mathematics. For poets, there is no higher morality than precision.

—Lee Seong-bok, Indeterminate Inflorescence: Notes from a poetry class (Allen Lane/Penguin Books, 2023), translation by Anton Hur

face forward

A poet who wore the language mask.

impossible to answer

Can the emotion I need to express be found in language alone?

language preceding language

One of [Dada’s] founders, the German poet Hugo Ball tells how, on June 23, 1916, in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, hiding his face behind a mask by Hans Arp, he recited, to the astonishment, indignation, and fascination of the audience, a phonetic poem consisting entirely of nonsense syllables and meaningless words. Ball’s experience, as he himself recounts it, lucidly and with feeling bordering on religious trance; it was a regression to the magic spell, or more precisely, to a language preceding language: “With those poems made up of mere sounds, we totally rejected language corrupted and rendered unusable by journalism. We returned to the profound alchemy of the Word, beyond words, thus preserving poetry within its last sacred domain.”

—Octavio Paz, "Reading and Contemplation," Convergences: Essays on Art and Literature (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987), translation by Helen Lane

poor prayers

We bring our poems, paltry offerings at the altar of language, in hope that some part of the immense mystery is revealed.

all about me

Her poems were language selfies.

lack of urban planning

In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein associated language with "an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitude of new boroughs with straight regular streets and uniform houses."

unusual path

A poem by the language less travelled.

turn to language

Poetry was part of humankind’s turn to language, and therefore poetry will not end until humankind ends. Particularly in these times, we can imagine a depopulated earth with remnants of poetry spraypainted on walls, carved into stones, on metal plaques hanging tilted from buildings fallen into ruin.

is quantum

Language is quantum: changing states when observed (by reader or hearer).

save a life

Poetry can save one’s life, and it need not be from trauma; it may be as simple as opening one to the world through language.

chatter not matter

Language as communication interests me more than language as material.

mime poet

His use of language left so much unsaid you felt he missed his calling as a mime.