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listen

Ilona Yusuf


I wrote ‘listen’ after reading in depth about the complex set of motions that filter sound within the human ear, and looking at the patterns formed by waves of sound. Having set out to make artists’ books, a way of combining text and image, the work evolved to include a series of prints and small artworks to accompany the poem in the form of a unique book. Some of these are reproduced here.


Note: artists’ books can be unique, single editions, or limited editions ranging from ten or twenty five to two hundred.


i


the mechanics of hearing


hammer

anvil

stirrup


three bones

and a membrane

sandwiched midway along

a concealed tunnel


minuscule bones working

in the harmony

of sequential movement


strike the tympanum

-membrane stretched taut

across a hollow body

to receive a myriad

chromatic inflexions—


past the cone of light

in and out

back and forth

to and fro

the little hammer

pushes waves

past anvil and stirrup


past a forest of fibre swaying

liquid in the labyrinth

of chamber on spiral chamber

inland sea sounding

within a shell—

filtering translating

kaleidoscopes of sound


so that amidst cacophony

a single clear note

cuts through the air


filling it with pure sound


ii


the mechanics of silence


and then there is

erasure


a wilful act


to close the ear

to sounds it does not wish

to perceive or hear


to rub away voice


to stiffen the amaranthine flexing

of this assembly of moving parts


to dull the movement of

hammer

anvil

stirrup


against the tympanum


that it loses elasticity

that it idles untuned

that it unlearns

the shape of words

the reading of sound

the exercise of speech


that it rubs away voice

that it ossifies in silence


overwhelmed



listen i: the mechanics of hearing (smoke and graphite on Somerset paper)



All images courtesy of the author.


 


Ilona Yusuf is an artist, poet and Associate Editor (print) at The Aleph Review.

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