Place, Being, Resonance
A Critical Ecohermeneutic Approach to Education
Series:
Michael W. Derby
chapter three—the ecopoetics of education
Extract
chapter three
the ecopoetics of education
It starts with rhythm, that much I know. I mean the way the poem moves in time—its pace and gait and proportions. A poem can unfold with the shapely aplomb of a gavotte, or meander, or move with a quicksilver stutter and glide. Each rhythm shapes the energy flow with a distinct logic; each parses the world with a syntax of its own. A poem thinks by the way it moves.
But that raises another question, for rhythmic logic is not conceptual. How can you translate its native terms into categories your mind can deal with? How do you talk about moves your body grasps in a flash? (Lee, 2002, pp. 19–20)
A poem thinks by the way it moves. It conveys meaning by the way it unfolds and approaches, by the way it dances a rhythmic logic on the page, by its very form of being (or, we might say, by the way it imaginatively mimics the gestures of being beneath the words). One is tempted to say all writing thinks by the way it moves (this includes, of course, all the dimensions of experience that can be methodically omitted, flattened, reified). Academic papers also convey meaning, in part, by the way in which they parse experience with a paradigmatic logic; as do love letters, analytical essays and preposterous books on educational philosophy and fungi. This is not to claim these things think...
You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.
This site requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals.
Do you have any questions? Contact us.
Or login to access all content.