What is the language using us for?
It uses us all and in its dark
Of dark actions selections differ.I am not making a fool of myself
For you. What I am making is
A place for language in my life*
What is the language using us for?
I don’t know. Have the words ever
Made anything of you, near a kind
Of truth you thought you were? Me
Neither. The words like albatrosses
Are only a doubtful touch towards
My going and you lifting your hand
To speak to illustrate an observed
Catastrophe. What is the weather
Using us for where we are ready
With all our language lines aboard?
The beginning wind slaps the canvas.
Are you ready? Are you ready?
— from ‘What is the Language Using Us for?’, W.S. Graham
Notes from a Room 