notes to follow bonnie jones' "eulachon 4/21/12"

by jeph jerman in response to bonnie jones' 'eulachon 4/21/12, Eulachon 2012

struggling to find a word to describe jones' text piece, as if i had to, the word palimpsest leapt to mind. not that the piece itself represents that reworked slate, but it makes of mind a palimpsest, as each sentence or sentence fragment scrolls upward and we are left, in the intervening time, to try and remember and connect past fragments with new bits of information. it is a bit like watching someone write-sentences flow haltingly, words are misspelled and then re-spelled. at times words flash for split seconds, thoughts that don't stick around. showing what mind does, and then, in the end, giving us an alternative, and antidote perhaps. 

not knowing much about text pieces, i am not sure if this is a new idea, this working of language as a concrete moving thing. when reading text in an everyday context, as you may be doing this instant, you can go back and re-read anything you may've lost/forgotten/not been paying attention to. if left to play through, this doesn't happen with"... 4/21/12", and a struggle with meaning ensues. mind tumbles, having been tripped up. it wanders, as it will, and it searches through the dust and erasure marks, trying to re-construct. 

i believe that this is what we are being shown. perhaps then not so much a page written/erased/re-written, as a finger pointing at the moon.