Another World

A friend of mine has started a really rather interesting blog that I think needs to be seen by many. Go visit Loki at The Centre Cannot Hold.

I mention this, not only because I’m more than happy to laud the work of my friends, but also because I made reference to one of my poems on his site and thought I should log it here for sake of reference.

Another World was written as a meditation on the point that person A can only really transmit a concept of what they are saying to person B. The simple act of saying “blue” generates two different shades of the same colour in the minds of the two people discussing the colour because at a basic level, our experiences are different.

Another World

I cannot hold my experiences
and speak to you of this world,
any more than I can hold sand
and speak of deserts to a fish.
 
What I can do
is assemble these words
in the shape they make for me,
and send my thoughts through them;
not to show you how things are
but to put your hands
on handles to doors
closed inside your head,
and suggest
we take a walk outside.
 
Outside,
we will see what we will see
and name what we see with our names,
taking it on faith that
when I speak to you of sand,
you will think of dry, wide deserts
and when you hold your experiences to me,
I will see another world.