arts & ego blog
degrammar

Don’t worry about not understanding some of the poem; I’m deliberately breaking some English language conventions. It’s exploring the connection between precise understanding & language; it’s something I’ve been exploring on and off for the last few years. I’ve changed the way the words are assembled to avoid standard grammar, so damaging the meaning gained from word context. The poem’s grammar doesn’t assemble the words into a fuller meaning; you have to do that yourself. You could say I find ordinary English too precise.

If anything, I’m inspired by the Tan period Chinese poets; the written Chinese language is much better for this kind of thing: or so I understand from some books written by Chinese complaining about the problems of translating Chinese poetry into English. Mind you, what I’m doing is nothing compared to the master, JH Prynne. He does much better than me using perfectly correct grammar.