The Future Task of Language

 

Who are the new theorists of poetry? How many rules might be broken – how many newmade up? What are the future tasks of language? Questions and answers.

— ad for a recent event called »Syntax as Intellect: Language Poets.«

the future task of language
is to
drive a cherry-red Mercedes Benz
into the heart of hell
and place a bet on God

the future task of language
is to
burn itself down in prayer and
invent a new code for beauty

the future task of language
will be to invent a way of
dealing with loneliness

the future task of language
is more like a guess written in fire
than a new coat of ideas and a
real close shave

the future task of language
is more like something erupting
than something figuring itself out
over and over again

the future task of language
will be to do whatever the fuck it wants

the future task of language
is unknowable, impossible, grief-struck, mad,
endless, touching,
wired, wild and weary,
broken-down, dragged up, smashed, floating
in the wind

Aus: Die anmutige Kurve eines Marschflugkörpers. poetenladen 2008
(Why Rimbaud Went to Africa. Zeitgeist-Press 1989)

David Lerner    27.06.2008