IT is, is IT?
If No, then forget about IT.
If Yes, then what is IT?
A fundamental question.
Multiple fundamentalist answers—
Formal and or Functional?
For most of us IT is anthropomorphic
Some believe that IT is present.
Thus, IT may be immanent and or metaphoric
Others think that IT is absent, though IT is;
That is to say, transcendent and metonymic.
IT may be language itself.
Maybe IT works through language
(as for Lacan and Derrida).
Some are believed to have seen IT
Or heard IT.
It is also claimed that you are IT.
IT may be what one takes IT to be,
Be it One or more.
We are all participant-observers,
And sciences attest it.
Thus, IT is highly complex.
But what is ironic is that I wouldn’t share
my food, shelter, property or love—
even with my sibling.
Yet I am all too eager to share all about IT!
***
“Writing [maketh] an exact Man,”
claims Francis Bacon.
Macaulay’s Minutes is our bible.
Derrida emphasizes
the Primacy of Writing.
Freedom to write is also guaranteed—
by our Indian Constitution!
So, our children at school do write a lot—
in the classroom,
as part of their homework,
as assignments;
write a lot of tests:
their test of spoken language, too,
is a written test!
Isn’t it hard work?
Yes, but that’s the price they must pay—
For the freedom NOT to think!
***
Composed on November 16, 2017.
Winner I, Photostory Contest, sponsored by Eve Roper, December 2, 2017.
Closure I would aim at,
As did the little one
In Tagore’s poem Closed Path.
But Derrida has warned me:
Language is an open system!
***
Composed on October 19, 2017
Winner, Poetry contest, sponsored by nette onclaud, Oct. 22, 2017.
The French were
proud to say:
Ce qui n’est pas clair
n’est pas Français!
Derrida broke the pride!
***
Surd and absurd are – at bottom – synonymous!
Absurd?
Yes, of course.
So are canny and uncanny.
Sub- can mean high or (be)low
Post- can mean Post- or Pre-!
Again, in Tamil, naatram once meant fragrance,
Now it's its opposite.
Antithetical meanings of primal words,
As noted by Freud,
And as endorsed by Bloom.
Maybe a linguistic universal for Chomsky,
Freeplay for Derrida,
Language games for Lyotard,
And a mystery for us!
— R. V. Ram
I’m finding Derrida de-structured
And Levinas‘ face makes me smile
Who would have conjectured
That one day I’d lecture
On thoughfulness and all its trials?
I prefer Kierkegaard to Sartre
Who sometimes makes me feel *****.
Who would have expected
That words would be texted
As men smoked cigarettes and drank beer?
Some people like reading Jane Austen
While others juggle with Wittgenstein.
Who would have discarded
The notes in the margins?
How sweetly these words recombine.
Munch liked to paint people screaming
his premonitions were extra strong
Who else would have expected
The human destruction
Europe gave to the world before long?
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