Light On Dark Water

In comments attached to another post below (I think it was the one with the Incredible String Band video), Dave and Francesca discuss the question of whether poetry is the oldest art form and/or the oldest form of language. Which reminded me of a few things:

There's a blaze of light in every word.

—Leonard Cohen

Language is a virus from outer space.

—William S. Burroughs

Every word is a poem.

—me

Or, to put it another way, language is poetry. That of course is using the word in a loose sense: the construction of a verbal representation of something in the external world (external to the mind, e.g., "sky," "love").

Walker Percy, and I'm sure he's not the only one, seems to suggest that language and consciousness are so closely associated as to be almost inseparable.

Pre-TypePad

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