language without words

 

Lara Carlson

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Sick of those who come with words, words but no language,
I make my way to the snow-covered island. 

Wilderness has no words. The unwritten pages
stretch out in all directions. 

I come across this line of deer-slots in the snow: a language,
language without words. 


—Tomas Tranströmer
March 1979, excerpt
Robin Robertson translation 

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We wear clothes, and speak, and create civilizations, and believe we are more than wolves. 

But inside us there is a word we cannot pronounce and that is who we are. 


—Anthony Marra
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, excerpt

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Thinking of the stars night after night I begin to realize 
The stars are words 

and all the innumerable worlds in the Milky Way are words, 
and so is this world too. 

And I realize that no matter where I am, 
whether in a little room full of thought, 

or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, 
it’s all in my mind. 


—Jack Kerouac 
Lonesome Traveler 

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