2004-10-12 20:22

Jewels and Binoculars

I don’t think poetry is necessarily after clarity, and I certainly never expect accuracy. I prefer a little slack between language and meaning, like the slack we find between language and the world itself.

Speech remains supple through constant blurring of the boundaries of received definitions. A word means this today then, maybe, a shade of that tomorrow. The cognates branch and fan out, and dialects accrete like silt over the bedrock. “The Maker of this earth but patented a leaf.”

Writing ossifies this process of course, which is, you know, not entirely a bad thing. We all need good, strong bones.

Words become things, distinctions follow distinctions.

outloud writing process

---

Previous post

Checkmate My research librarian has brought an interesting little article to my attention. It would seem that superior skill at chess is not in fact an

Next post

Dead Heat I don’t buy it. I don’t believe that the polls are correct about the neck-and-neck nature of the presidential race. Rather, I think we’re in the