Undone tongue 

find

glistens my shivering

heart
undone soul my

find won’t 

my tongue:

words seamless glistens.
come undone.
tongue seamless 

won’t 

soul;

heart my cold glistens – 

seamless

heart won’t find!

seamless tongue

undone
undone heart:

words words words cannot –

undone come.
I find my

shivering, seamless, undone tongue 

my

cannot

tongue 

undone
soul 

come

words in heart

shivering 

on tongue 

Writing practice based on Natalie Goldberg’s ‘Syntax’ exercise (Writing Down the Bones, Shambala, 2005).  

‘Our language is usually locked into a sentence syntax of subject/verb/direct-object.  There is a subject acting on an object.  “I see the dog” – with this sentence structure, “I” is the centre of the universe.  We forget in our language structure that while “I” looks at “the dog”, “the dog” is simultaneously looking at us.  It is interesting to note that in the Japanese language the sentence would say, “I dog seeing.”  There is an exchange or interaction rather than a subject acting on an object.

“We think in sentences, and the way we think is the way we see.  If we think in the structure subject/verb/direct-object, then that is how we form our world.  By cracking open that syntax, we release energy and are able to see the world afresh and from a new angle.”  (p68)