03-17-2012, 02:03 AM
Here's a poem by Topher Hemann which has a lot to say about
what we try to do:
(Also a good example of discussion using poetry instead of prose.
We should use poetry to say things more often around here
considering it's what we're trying to get good at.)
MATERIAL SHIFT
for Matthias Regan
thinking thru things
the material of it
what I thought
it would be was
more solid, more
like this voice is
almost an audible
pressure behind ear
drum—it's a click
thinking thru light
switches the ease
with which faucets
expect water
every thing broken
reveals its utility
a hammer bare to tang
returns to its
unhandleable lump
but not its purpose:
thru new verbs material
shifts as a mind
grapples not so much
with what it is but what
the word for it does
pressing against the ear
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions

