Robert Wood begins with a crucial Preface
which sets the necessary ground. He writes that
if we collaborate on this, come to a consensus of what is language,
you might find a different way to
come at the text
He makes clear that understanding the text is a two-way process,
beginning way before the author and continuing with each reader, changing with
every reading, every time. He insists on it in the Afterword as well. Giving a sense of what lies ahead, the author
decentralizes the act of comprehension. Moreover, in order for the result to be
cohesive and consistent, it must connect to something which each reader can
relate to, something which is embedded in the lives we live, what we connect
to, our agonies and ecstasies, our anchors, our seas. Robert therefore, devises
an ingenious solution for this.
Swallowed by the whale | a fleet | a
shell |an anchor made of chains | daisy | swell | a crown of thorns | a reef | a break | to the seagrass pasture |
the Poet of an island | continent |
confined to myth time from silence | back once again to speak and write of universal literature | an assembly
of absolute knowing dissembled | put together again
by rhyming | write to the wire and flowing with lava | steamed & muscular |
a bronze calf | inside the stomach of a serpent | that was our origin
A Guide to Field and Wood, as is made clear above, is an attempt to write a
universal literature, a creation of a new legend, one where our absolute
knowledge counts for nothing, where our origin is told through new objects,
relations and permutations. There are no names in the text, no defined places,
everything comes across to us as the narrator progresses, nothing is a given. Further,
against the tendency to acclimatise nature to ourselves, his Herculean task is
to acculturate himself to the natural, both human and non-human.
Corresponding to a
postcolonial image, one could say that this sudden decolonised world is
strikingly bleak, unknown and new to touch and feeling. Judith Wright, an
important Australian poet wrote in 1956, “before one’s country can become an
accepted background against which the poet’s imagination can move unhindered,
it must first be observed, understood, described, and as it were, absorbed.” To
‘absorb’ these new surroundings, the narrator The Poet finds himself on a journey where he meets new people,
transforms through his experiences and learns to interact with nature, tracing
the footsteps of his ancestors. He aims to be the Discover-er of this new-found
geography. The ecology of this new rediscovered nature fascinates him. Thus, A Guide becomes truly a handbook to
align one’s imaginative processes with that of his surroundings, with its differences
and universalities.
| their bodies a canvas | a still life |
a shimmering glittering glistening | pomegranate | sandalwood | quandong, peppermint, jam tree | honey upon your
thigh
He became a frangipani | he became
rosemary | he became an olive | grove of aloe | and tussock | weed | kangaroo | paw paw of Law | wearing
consciousness like a halo | like holly
like mistletoe like hope alone from eyes third and clay ground wet and red from yolk | he flew as a bird of paradise |
made from green and gold
Images of
sandalwood, quandong, jam tree, frangipani, tussock and much more provide new ties
for the narrator to locate himself, as part of a diverse ecosystem along with
exploring both human and non-human surroundings to fulfil his imaginative
quest. There is also a recognition, an acknowledgement of the world left behind
when the Explorer is shown to depart for a voyage to the City, to ‘find the
souls… in its slums and towers’, almost a reverse voyage. The Poet now does not long for the city which he has alienated away, for he is finally one with his new identity.
We fought against | dying forgetting |
history | the world | in language of our own making
The language of
this transformational process becomes the writing of the tale itself. Living
becomes poetic, Writing becomes living. There are still questions to be
answered, there is still a story to be told, tragedies to overcome and joys to
remember and writing becomes its lone medium. Both the Poet and his Lover
undergo creative transformations. The ever-changing surroundings in the midst
of which he finds himself can only be unravelled and made sense through the
utilisation of the creative consciousness. In an attempt to write a universal
literature, Robert Wood invokes age-old myths as well as creates his own
fables, highlighting his own progress as a poet, paying tribute to battles of
people around the world and most importantly, identifying the attacks on native
cultures and languages. Written in English, I feel, the text definitely stands
on the Oppressed side of language, amplifying the battle-cry against the
oppressor.
They told that story | of hunting crayfish
| a rock pool | and eight of us | their tails sixteen
| and the stars above | and we ate for hours afterwards
The connection with Judith
Wright’s ‘Rockpool’ is almost
uncanny. Written in a 7-couplet ghazal form, it embodies an alternative attempt
towards creating a universal text by
experimenting with diverse techniques, images and styles taken from various
cultures. Both texts express the poet’s dissatisfaction and anguish with the
contemporary conflicts and contradictions along with being rooted in their bond
with nature.
A
Guide, however appeals to the need
for a single, encompassing text wherein the role of language itself is being
changed, from being an instrument of subjection to be a medium of connection
with all. Something which was already here and it only needs a little
excavation.
Language comes from the birds in the trees | unspeaking |singing
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