Form, Content, and Function: Phenomenology and/in Sign Language Poetry
Form, Content, and Function: Phenomenology and/in Sign Language Poetry

Summary/Abstract: The poem “I Am Ordered Now To Talk” performed by Peter Cook’s and Kenny Lerner’s Flying Words Project is a video I just watched. I begin with a feeling of trepidation, wondering “Who am I to talk about this poem?” I am somewhat relieved by Kenny Lerner’s comment in the preamble to the poem that I should “please feel paranoid.” Yet with this opening statement, and with Peter Cook’s aside to the Deaf members of the audience that I cannot understand, I become immediately aware of my discomfort. I feel excluded, shaken, and this sense pervades my experience of the poem. This is only reinforced by the eeriness of the performance, the unsettling contrast of darkness and light, the movement and sounds of the poets on the stage. And so I start with myself, allowing myself to feel discomfort and be present for it.

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