a map of our failures

This is for all of your writings, songs, pictures or however else you feel like expressing yourself. Have at it!
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tokyo vogue
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 8:05 pm
Location: philadelphia

a map of our failures

Post by tokyo vogue »

"These are all the words we cannot use," she said, her hands drifting down the paper. This was the banned list, a collection of words and phrases that would, if used, start a riot of outrage and phone calls to the editor.

Taboos were carried along with the meaning as centuries and kings fell. The art of suggesting them is practiced widely. They sell where originality doesn't, and innuendo is quicker than truth. Books no longer touch us, but the words still burn.


This passage is best summarized by which of the following:

A. Censorship is prevalent in the world we live in.
B. Some words are more powerful than others.
C. "Language is a map of our failures" (Adrienne Rich)
D. None of the above


Words should ignite at the touch of my hands but they don't,
And so I've memorized these structures in their place.
You know this, and understand,
But your understanding is understanding of the wrong thing.
And although I have diagrams and you have vocabulary,
I have reluctantly realized that what looks good on paper
Does not always work out in real life.

I have not yet decided if the silence that surrounds us
Is merely the place where speech used to be,
Or if it is a new kind of speech entirely.


I am to You as:

A. Running:Falling
B. Map:Directions
C. Analogy:Metaphor



I am in the process of inventing a word to go into the spaces
Where there is nothing left to say, in the shadow that falls
Between your actions and my reactions.
The question being: is this feeling a verb or a noun?


True or False:

I define my truth by you.
I no longer have anything left to define.



There are words that don't make sense anymore.
I'm afraid that I've forgotten the right way to pronounce them,
That the syllables (awkward and thick in my throat) are being jumbled.
I cannot see myself in these words.
I cannot see myself in you.

This is the translation of our silences.
These are all the words we cannot say.
if we can rock together, why can't we walk together?
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A rope leash
Posts: 1835
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 6:47 pm
Location: southern misery, USA

Great!

Post by A rope leash »

This is a neat piece. It is quite inventive. A process to fill the spaces...

...excellent!
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