PORTRAIT FIFTEEN Revelation (Solo voice)

  I was reading an article by Joseph Kosuth  
experiencing it, as usual, as both theory and art
and suddenly I realised that other people
often read words as if they had meaning      behind them
as if words were a veil not material.  
 
 
The clay is the pot.
Its language, its style
are not seen as separate
from its corporeality;
are not seen as a veil
behind which could be revealed
its purpose, its meaning.
 
 
The people who live in a world
where text is not a substance -
they must experience the words      of a poem
as if in a manual or timetable  
behind which to search for information.
But you and I read timetables
searching for poetic form.
 
 
How differently they must view the idea
that consciousness is a textual construct.
They must think it means there's a veil
concealing an essential meaning
They must imagine an essence, a truth,
behind textual appearance.
 
 
But for us the concept
writes consciousness
back into experience
making language      signal
with textual solidity  
the world's substance.  

 
Index of Poems by Alaric Sumner