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John Kinsella 'Lexical Spectrum 1'

LEXICAL SPECTRUMS

Lexical Spectrum 1

Sine Macpherson

I’m as specific as you.
Fifth band down, right edge:
six bars of colour. I won’t name
the colours, you can. I count
the apertures of King’s College Chapel,
the number of bricks in walls
while waiting at the doctor’s.
As a child I collected nouns.
This spectrum disorder
is as precise as misunderstanding.
Without the right reader
it can’t be scanned as some
might intend: but the gaps
between colours I read
as the field I have walked across,
the mountain I will climb, the dragon-
fly that isn’t a mayfly,
are recorded as ‘aims’ in my
journal (and/or diary).
Where I have been is forgotten
as I don’t record that. Not
in the same way. But the weight
of my steps leaves a mark,
and the lexical takes stock.


         John Kinsella
         2011

Luminous World - Contemporary Art from the Wesfarmers Collection
2012
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
(National tour to 2014).