“Babel” by Matthew Shelton & Timothy LiuPosted by Rattle
Matthew Shelton & Timothy Liu
BABEL
Scattered across the islands of the Galápagos archipelago there are half a dozen species of lizard that rely upon a method of communication comprised of what can only be called “push-ups.” When one lizard encounters another, each takes its turn bobbing head and torso up and down in a complex and jerky system of frantic interaction. By this means, lizards of each species establish territorial authority, reinforce social hierarchies, even engage in mating rituals.
It appears that these lizards evolved from a single species settling the islands from the mainland some 34 million years ago in what scientists have identified as two major waves of colonization. A small “Eastern Radiation” left two species endemic to San Cristóbal and Marchena, while the majority of lizards have come to inhabit the southern and western islands, spreading over time to the younger islands as the older were transported eastward, eventually eroding below sea level.
Each species has developed its own particular vocabulary, its own dialect of body language, to such an extent that each species might be said to “speak a different language.” Suffice it to say, when a lizard from one species encounters a lizard from another, bobbing head and torso up and down in a complex and jerky attempt at frantic interaction, try as they might they cannot understand each other. Lizards from one island are consequently unable to interbreed with lizards from another island. Without communication, it appears, there can be no intercourse.
Matthew Shelton & Timothy Liu: “For the past five years, we have been collaborating on poems and performances that incorporate music with verse. The texts for the project include pieces performed both acapella and with instrumentation (tabla, shruti box, log drum, singing bowl) in the tradition of the Sufis. Through the use of repetition and incantation, a single sonnet can be stretched and pulled beyond recognition into a hypnotic and improvisational rhythmic space.”
Timothy Liu: “As a child, I often wondered why things were named what they were named or spelled as they were spelled (remember ‘colonel’ or ‘bologna’?). As an adult, I find myself musing on slippages of language bordering on the absurd.” (web)
Timothy Liu: “The protestors at Standing Rock have been given a deadline of December 5th to abandon their obstructing location. A friend of mine recently returned from the site, saying, ‘They pray 24/7 there, they never stop praying! Who are they praying too?’ My friend has doubts over the existence of a higher power but did his part anyway. I wrote this poem out of solidarity.” (website)
Timothy Liu: “As a fan of short syllabic poems, I’ve been writing haiku (5–7–5) and tanka (5–7–5–7–7) for decades and keep them in a special file. I almost never send to haiku journals because they don’t publish the sorts of things I like to read. As for American letters, I think there’s a distrust of poems of such brevity (unless they’re translations of Basho!), so I mostly keep these little gem-like forms to my lonesome.” (website)
Timothy Liu: “When I was a freshman at UCLA in 1983, I checked out Sylvia Plath’s Ariel from the library and settled down by the pool at the Sunset Rec Center. By the time I got up, I knew I wanted to be a poet. Or as Robert Lowell famously put it in his introduction: ‘To play Russian Roulette with all six cartridges loaded.’” (website)
Timothy Liu: “When I was a freshman at UCLA in 1983, I checked out Sylvia Plath’s Ariel from the library and settled down by the pool at the Sunset Rec Center. By the time I got up, I knew I wanted to be a poet. Or as Robert Lowell famously put it in his introduction: ‘To play Russian Roulette with all six cartridges loaded.’” (web)