The Nature of Language - Leaf #2
excerpts from The Nature of Language
Reading through journal entries composed in reflection on this project, The Nature of Language, I remember (how
quickly I forget) what a wealth of ideas opened up to me with this work. But
this is not the place for a lengthy meandering through those scattered ideas.
The whole point of visual poetry, just like a traditional poem, is that the
poem is presented to be read. Of course, it is a joy to reflect, to give
further insight, to explain—after all, we desire it. I will say that with these
poems (only poems because we have become sufficiently disconnected to apprehend
them as such—or because they have always been poems) I was and am interested in
an idea of language form, a precursory shadow of language, embedded in natural
forms. God/s did not give us language, but we are never so original as to be
able to claim anything without influence. In
the beginning was the word. No, I don’t think so. In the beginning (our
beginning) was desire and need, and the world around us which we learned, no
doubt very swiftly, to read. We read the signs of health, of poison, of danger
and safety. It seems that form is an expression of language—once it is read.
So, in what context do we find ourselves where we read the poems which I
present here?
—Sacha Archer
The Nature of Language - Birch Bark #6
The Nature of Language - Mushrooms #2
The Nature of Language - Stalk and Pod #4
The Nature of Language - Stalk and Roots #3
The Nature of Language - Stick and Growth #4
The Nature of Language - Wood #3
