Finger and Thumb strives to create rhythm on paper. It is a movement of language itself, for the sake of rhythm and numbers. Branching out from the phenomenon of “slam” poetry, the poems in Finger and Thumb attempt to keep linguistic integrity, while bringing a percussive element to the text. The subjects roam from landscape, to body image, to family life to, of course music, each playing with concepts of tonality in language, of innate music within the vocabulary.
There is a certain life given to the work. Everything is made human, as if making things human makes them more describable, more understandable, not only in the text but in their relationship to the author. It is a politically charged work that addresses issues of development, race, and gender in America. A large part of Finger and Thumb is about getting to pulse that lies in everything, the core of each item. Within that pulse is a beat which the language constantly addresses. A language that is moving and pulsing itself.
Ultimately, Finger and Thumb is about movement within the moment. The movement of language against itself, and the movement of one’s thoughts within one stream. It is an attempt to document the natural contradiction we are to stagnancy, and the rhythms that we all share.
- ISBN10 187685748X
- ISBN13 9781876857486
- Publish Date 28 November 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 August 2016
- Publish Country AU
- Imprint Salt Publishing
- Format Paperback
- Pages 128
- Language English
- URL http://saltpublishing.com/products/finger-and-thumb-9781876857486