The Phonemes is my favorite collection of poetry. It's a tall, skinny green book published in 2012 by Les Figues Press in Los Angeles. I found it at Commonwealth Books in Boston, which has a grand poetry session with a lot of variety. Drawn to the shape of the book, I was delighted to encounter the title. Phonemes? Linguistics? Poems about linguistics? Awesome!
When I opened the book, I found the postcard-shaped sound key tucked just behind the cover, and the premise of the collection became apparent.
| - = - -|*= - - -- -=|*=- - - | Transmission static; horizon; stalled or circular thought |
| ^^^^^~~~~~~~~~ | Thundersheet on-air; deciduous canopy; synaesthesia for lightning |
| {{{ }}} | Time lag; echo; digital interrupt |
| ''''''' | Giddyap; tongue-clicks behind the molar |
| °^^°^^ | Whir; small body in departure/landing; wings at close range |
| ꞵ◇┐ꞵ◇┐ꞵ◇┐ꞵ◇┐ꞵ┐◇ | Brrr; growl; energy spasm; nausea; mechanical juddering |
| ||||§|||||§§§§||||| | Lullaby in traffic; raining; shhh; a sweeping beacon* |
| ~/~/~~/~/~ | Wind in tall grass; surf; immensity & glare; squint |
| <√<√<√<√<√<√<√<√ | Engine refusing to catch |
| ------------- | Distance; inner ear; refrigerator hum; a steep distortion |
| ((((())))) ((((())))) | Car alarm |
* The font chosen for the book uses a different version of the symbol than the closest font I could find. The Internet Archive link above displays the sounds in their intended font.
Punctuation as illustration of sound! I'd never encountered anything like it. Immediately, I realized that I'd never look at punctuation the same way again. I'd known that punctuation was excellent for dictating the pacing of a line, but I'd never seen it used to fill the silences it creates with sounds that no one but the reader hears.
Ever since, I've paid much more attention to my punctuation as illustration. A semi-colon ; as a winking eye and a snap. Curly braces { } as a wobbling membrane. A percent sign % as a squawking bird with wings unfolded. Richard opened my eyes to unlimited possibilities.
Inside the book was Richard's masterful use of the sounds she created. One of my favorites is Sugar. Two sounds appear: the distance/inner ear/refigerator hum/a steep distortion and the car alarm. The first appears throughout the piece as Richard describes the power of sweetness, as thrumming movement between subjects, as the refrigerator full of ice cream, the dissociation of succumbing to physical sensation. The last appears as an entire page of car alarm. The overwhelming abrupt end of thought. Repetition of environmental noise, of frustration and loss at the end of a thought.
A poem that appears earlier is Life of the Phonemes. It uses one sound, the transmission static/horizon/stalled or circular thought. This sound bridges between the end of one line and the beginning of the other, appearing at both. It is the transmission of sound to meaning, of differentiation in language, always interrupted by the noise of both physical utterance and interpretation. Phonemes as familiar building blocks that make up the alphabet of talking to one's self, of thinking in words. The horizon of a new day, a new sentence, replacing the old.
It's all phenomenal. It's my favorite collection of poetry.