...
His fear is not behind him but beside him
On either hand to make his course perhaps
A crooked straightness yet no less a straightness.
...
(from Robert Frost's poem Escapist - Never)

Yesterday, I functioned as stand-in examinator at an oral exam discussing a project on metaphor theory in relation to computer media. I haven't been thinking about metaphors for a long time; they are more part of my old 'trade' (comparative literature) than my 'new' trade (digital media stuff). But it was nice to think about metaphors again; how elements from different worlds come together to make new meaning; how incompatible expressions nevertheless become compatible in the context of a metaphor. The small wonders of experience constellations of words can create.

Perhaps it is mere chance, or perhaps it is because there is a secret meaning behind everything, but the last couple of nights (also before the exam) I have felt an urge to digest a few poems, before I went to bed. And it had to be Robert Frost (hear him), whose Selected Poems I read for a course some years ago. And I came across the Escapist poem which I couldn't remember. And the image of "crooked straightness" has just stayed with me since I read it. It's a bloody brilliant metaphor. Perhaps a good psychoanalyst can tell me why I'm so attracted to it. But, really, I believe it sticks, because it just works very well. I don't care in which form they come to me, print or digital, but words...in rare moments words continue to work their magic on me.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:46