Mark Goodwin

Words Understanding ‘Mountain’

 

companion reflection to

Paul Evans’ Reflection on the Performing Mountains Symposium

 My co -climber & -artist Performing Mountains collaborator

 

Paul Evans reflected on reassurance as being

 

a rope of rhythmical words ...

 

Paul was risking most, he was the maker in the moment.

I, as poet reading work already made, was the holder

 

of the rope ...

 

Paul, the mark-maker, was

the on-sight ascensionist, and I

 

his belayer ...

 

Yet to belay a daring climber is not easy, and can be frightening, and requires close attention, and quick response. When the climber

 

leading trembles, you tremble too. And when the leader flows

and smoothes through the rock’s jagged patterns, then

 

the belayer can

relax and join

 

in with the

climber’s alert

 

dance ...

 

.

 

 

it is not

 

rock we

climb on

 

not

 

rope we

climb with

 

it is

 

only our

selves’

 

shapes

 

and

when

we

fall

 

it

is

 

not air

 

but our

selves we

 

fall through

 

In response to Roped Together, by Kate Lawrence, Vertical Dance.

 

The following long poem is ‘gleaned’ from:

Reflection on the Performing Mountains Symposium

by Paul Evans, April/May 2018.

 

The poem – To Gather A Contrast –  begins with material gleaned directly from Paul’s writing.The words have been gleaned by reading down the page through the text. So, to give an example:

I can glean the following from the three-line heading that starts this page:

 

following the Evans

also:

 

long Performing April

 

and:

 

‘gleaned’ Mountains May

 

or:

 

poem-mountains may

 

That last one ‘translates’ the noun into the verb.

 

There are also other creative translations that can be made from

the above gleanings:

 

 

following thee vans  ( or even: following t’ heavens)

 

also:

 

gleaned mountains’ May

 

(the addition of the apostrophe makes it clear

that the month of May belongs to mountains

that have been gleaned!)

 

To Gather A Contrast plays the games shown above, as well as playing quite a few others.

After the initial directly-gleaned material the poem then proceeds through various iterations by gleaning from itself. There are three ways that the gleanings are made: line-end gleaning, where the last words of lines are gleaned together; line-start gleaning, where the first words of lines are gleaned together; and river-gleaning, where words from within lines are gleaned together, as initially explained above.

Us humans continually perform our lives through words. Words are both power & trap. Pattern can keep us on track or blind us to the wider world. A climber performs a pattern. The making of a pattern from aeons-old random rock-shapes is a performance. The syllable ‘form’ being essential. Our existences are ‘per’ form, or ‘through’ or ‘by’ form. And we humans continually ‘pre-form’ our lives through words. And gestures too! Sometimes we climbers reassure ourselves by making certain shapes, and making them well. At other times a climber can smash those shapes and then struggle in the slight space between death & life ... the gap between inanimate rock ... and alive body. But even then – when the words are falling off the cliff-face or the paint is dripping – for the climber, for the artist, for the poet, for the person to live it is essential to be willing to grasp for patterns again, and also to have the skills to do so.

Is it that    per    form   ance    art is mostly about letting patterns s  ma    sh  ... so that new patterns can be grasped ... brie    fly ... ?

 

The following long poem is full of grammatical contortions, although sometimes there are phrases that make ‘reasonable sense’. There are beautiful images & ugly ones. There are notions I like, and some I really do not. There is sense in places, and un-sense in others.

If you read – or rather help make! – the music & images of the following poem, then it is best to put ‘understanding’ aside ... No! ... that’s wrong ... it is better to transform an understanding of

‘understanding’.

We word-bound humans too often emphasise < comprehend, grasp the idea of >. As creatures with bodies that feel, in the end we can only be sure of our being through the action of

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

< stand [ing] in the midst of >

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Gather A Contrast

 

understand English midst

is between

 

panel snapshot background

snow-shape mountain

 

photo-apex Haston torso

locate breath(-)moment

 

sublime climber Scott

carrying home

 

mountain’s climber

tinted against

 

‘mountain’

 

precariousness drove

a stream

 

fear created of feeling

sublime Sisyphean language

 

present’s shape-sky

visual loading

 

capture metres fumbling

 

wild exposure photographs

recognise words

 

cold under

.

 

 

intense image think feeling

moment meaning perform madmen

 

romantic people you appear

performance’s symposium

 

directly climbers with

proximity immense

 

for human possible

seen irresponsible

 

notion encountered dance

 

i roped together the contrast

 

reception through

insist’s scène

 

climbers’ something-terrain

 

(intellectual performance-scrape)

(translation demands apprehension)

 

consider wind

.

 

Everest conditions distant data

recognised cartoon

 

perhaps perhaps physical

last tip

 

.

 

consider ground material

evolve edge

 

kind-point paint

.

 

something motion

performing qualities

 

where success felt failure

 

avoid judgement drawing

 

more meter resources

climbing understanding

 

elated exposure

checked through start-ground

 

mark opportunity amongst

 

climb

.

 

contrast mi(d)st between

background mountain torso moment

 

Scott home climber

against ‘mountain’ drove

 

stream-feeling language

sky-loading fumbling photographs

 

words’

under

.

 

feeling madmen appear

symposium with immense possible

 

irresponsible dance-contrast

 

through scène terrain scrape

apprehension wind

 

data cartoon

physical tip

 

material edge paint

motion qualities

 

failure drawing resources

 

understanding exposure

 

ground amongst climb

.

 

to understand is

panel-snow photo-locate

 

sublime carrying mountains’

tinted ‘mountain’

 

precariousness a fear sublime

presents visual capture

 

wild recognise cold intense moment

romantic performances

 

directly proximity for seen notion

(notion roped reception)

 

i-reception insists

(translectual intellation)

 

climbers consider

.

 

 

Everest recognised

perhaps-last

.

 

consider evolve-kind

something performing ‘where’

 

avoid more-climbing

elated-checked mark

 

climb

.

 

gather under

stand between

 

snapshot-shape apex-breath

 

climber carrying mountains

against ‘mountain’

 

precariousness stream created

Sisyphean shape-loading

 

metres’ exposure words

under image-meaning

 

people’s performances

climbers’ immense human

 

irresponsible encountered

through scène

 

some

 

thing performance demands

 

wind conditions

 

cartoon perhaps tip-ground

 

edge-point some

 

thing performing success

 

judgement meter climbing

exposure through

 

opportunity-climb

.

 

contrast background-Scott

against stream-sky

 

word sunder

 

feeling sympo    sium irresp    onsible through appreh    ension

 

data physical material motion

failure understanding ground

 

to panel-sublime tinted precariousness

presents ‘wild romantic’ directly

 

notion-i

translectual climbers

 

Everest perhaps

consider some

 

thing-avoid elated climb

 

gather-stand snapshot climber

against precariousness

 

Sisyphean metres under

people’s climbers

 

 

irresponsible through

some thing-wind

 

cartoon edge-thing

 

judgement exposure opportunity

.

 

 

midst mountain climber-mountain

feeling fumbling words under

 

madmen with dance-terrain wind

cartoon tip-paint qualities

 

drawing understanding amongst under

 

stand snow

 

carrying mountain precariousness

visual cold performances

 

proximity-roped reception

 

translation climbers’

recognised perhaps

 

evolves performing

more-checked climb

 

gather between

shape-carrying mountain

 

stream-shape exposure image

 

performance’s immense

irresponsible scene

 

some performance conditions

perhaps(-)point performing

 

meter through opportunity

.

 

between moment climber drove

language photographs

 

words under appear possible

 

contrast scrape-wind

cartoon-pit pain qualities

 

resource’s exposure climb

 

is-locate mountains’ ‘mountain’

sublime capture-moment performances

 

notion reception insists intellation

 

consider recognised last ‘kind-where’

 

climbing mark climb under between breath

 

mountain’s ‘mountain’ created

loading words’ meaning

 

performance’s human

encountered scene

 

some demand’s conditions

 

ground some success

climbing through climb

.

 

contrast against

word-feeling

 

 

data-failure to

present’s notion

 

translectual Everest

 

consider thing-gather

against Sisyphean people’s

 

irresponsible sum

 

cartoon judgement

midst feeling madmen

 

drawing-stand carrying

visual proximity

 

translation recognised

evolves more gather-shape

 

stream performance’s ir

 

responsible some

perhaps meter

 

between language

words contrast

 

cartoon resources’

is-sublime notion

 

consider climbing

 

mountains loading

performances encountered

 

some ground climbing

.

 

background stream under symposium

physical understanding

 

sublime wild i

translectual perhaps

 

some elated snapshot precariousness

metres climbers through thin(g)-edge

 

exposure climber

words’ dance-paint

 

understanding snow

mountain cold roped

 

climbers’ recognised performing checked

between carrying shape

 

performance’s scene

performance-point through moment

 

photographs appear

scrape paint-exposure

 

mountains capture reception recognised

climbing mountain words

 

performance’s scene demands some through

.

 

Scott-sky under apprehension

motion-ground precariousness directly i

 

climbers’ ‘perhaps’

 

some climb climber-precariousness under climbers

through wind-thing opportunity

 

mountain under wind-qualities

under snow

 

 

precariousness-performance’s reception

climbers perhaps performing climb between mountain image

 

immense-scene conditions performing opportunity

drove photographs’ possible wind-qualities

 

climb ‘mountain’ performances’ intellation

where breath created meaning

 

human-scene conditions success

 

climb

.

 

contrast-word data presents translectual

consider against irresponsible cartoon mist

 

drawing visual translation evolves stream

responsible perhaps between words

 

cartoon is consider

 

mountains’ performances

some background physical sublime translectual

 

some metre’s exposure

words understanding ‘mountain’

 

climbers between performance’s performance

 

photographs scrape mountains

 

mountains climbing performances

 

Scott-motion climbers

some through mountain under precariousness

 

climbers’ immense drove-climb

 

where human

 

climb

.

 

against feeling to notion Everest-gather people’s

some judgement madmen carrying proximity

 

recognised shape ir(k)some

some meter-language contrast

 

resource’s notion

climbing loading encountered climbing

 

symposium understanding i

perhaps precariousness edge

 

climber-paint snow-roped

checked shape scene moment

 

appears exposure recognised words through apprehension

i-perhaps climber’s opportunity qualities

 

snow-reception image

 

opportunity qualities’ intellation meaning success

 

climb

 

.

 

translectual mist-stream words

consider performances’ translectual exposure

 

mountain performance

 

mountains’ performances

 

climbers’ precariousness

 

climb human

.

 

words’ exposure-performance performance’s precariousness

 

human

.

 

precariousness    human

 

 

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

collaborator being words

        

                                      moment-holder rope

                                      was i belayer & climber

 

                                      flows then

                                     can join

 

                                      the alert dance