Yes, I am a sign
signifying nothing in
particular. True,
it’s taken a while
to come to this conclusion.
I’ve worn many hats,
white hair a bird’s nest
now, my intentions giving
way to laughter, my
own or others’, it
matters not, my art being
weird, religious.
Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
View all posts by Tom D'Evelyn
Metaxyturn Diaries 
The text knows not the reader. The word knows not its meaning, any more than any other creature.
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Somehow these lines seem to speak for Everyman and Everywoman.
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sign signifying nothing in particular for me is an important corrective to an unnecessarily reductive reading of self as part of the image of God, a sign rather than a signified to which reality refers. This helps us see no-thingness as the penitiude that gives all to be, and the self may refer to the divine signified or not. For me, the floating signifiers of the liturgy paradoxically help point the self beyond itself.
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Uncharming.
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And, Stephen D’Evelyn, “uncharming” is a compliment to the poem which says so much about language, drawing richly on Macbeth. The poem uncharms. How wonderful!
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