Place of Performance: Bristol Sign Poetry Festival 2010, Bristol Centre for Deaf People

Transcription

1 Title of poem: Children s Park Performer s name: Richard Carter Date of Performance: 20th February 2010 Place of Performance: Bristol Sign Poetry Festival 2010, Bristol Centre for Deaf People Length: 02:18 Summary of Features Anthropomorphism Blending Eyegaze Handshape Neologism Symmetry Use of space Notes: Overview This poem presents an unexplained act of a marksman aiming at an innocent child in the park. The incident is told through the eyes of the man and the girl who happen to witness the event. The man takes an active part in the event and manages to thwart the marksman s attempt, but instead of making it a simple happy ending, the poem ends with an enigmatic atmosphere with the identity and motivation of the marksman remained unexplained. The tension in this poem is presented effectively through manipulation of speed, which adds a cinematographic effect to this poem.

2 Translation A man is walking one day when he looks up and sees a boy happily playing on the swings he is with a little girl who is playing with her skipping rope the man watches them thoughtfully the boy swings back and forth on his swing unaware of the floating cross-hair that appears on his forehead he swings the cross-hair on his head the man looks on in horror the girl, oblivious, jumps over her skipping rope but now she, too, sees the cross-hair on her friend's forehead and stares with horror the boy swings back and forth the cross-hair remains he swings back and forth his friend, still skipping, can't take her eyes off him the man approaches, then takes his eyes away from the boy and looks up a marksman is taking aim focusing the cross-hairs on the child the boy swings back and forth, the cross-hairs following him the girl skips as the marksman takes his final aim and fires the bullet leaves the gun the man sees the bullet's path the boy is still on the swing the girl with her rope the man starts to run towards the boy and into the path of the bullet, he runs as fast as he possibly can, desperate, he stretches out his hand and... the boy and the girl carry on playing the bullet is caught and the man looks up quickly the marksman pulls back and swiftly withdraws his gun

3 Theme The theme of this poem is mysterious and unresolved. There is clear evidence of violence in this story, but what it stands for, who the marksman is, and why he decides to shoot an innocent child, are not explained. In fact, this poem does not offer any explanation or comment. It is simply a direct illustration of a vivid cinematic moment, with a wide scope for interpretation by the audience. The use varying speed of events and their depiction is coupled with the fantastical ability of a man to catch a speeding bullet. Thus, films such as The Matrix are called to mind for the audience. There is not much variation in manual signs, and tension is created through repetition of signs, and also facial expression, eyegaze, and above all, unusually slow speed of signing (starting at 00:51). Richard s manipulation of speed can be observed in other poems (such as Looking for Diamonds ) but in this poem it is used as a crucial technique. The slow speed is not merely used to build up tension, but also interacts with the essential turn of the story - that the man manages to catch the bullet in time (which is not possible in reality, although audiences will have seen something similar is fantasy films such as The Matrix, Superman or The X-Men). At this point, slow motion, which hitherto has been understood as an externally added effect of slo-mo, becomes internal to the story, allowing the protagonist to make use of the slow movement of the bullet to see and follow its path. This can be understood as a case of blending of the conceptual representation of a poetic scene and the physicality of signing. The climax of the poem occurs when the man catches the bullet (2:08). Immediately after this, things return to be normal as if nothing has happened. The speed of signing becomes normal, depicting the two children happily playing in the park. The fact that the man is apparently uninjured by the bullet, and that the girl seems to have forgotten all about her terror, create the impression that it was a nightmarish daydream of the man. However, the poem ends with a calm and swift action of the marksman withdrawing his gun. This leaves an eerie aftertaste despite of the fact that the child remains unharmed. Poetic Features Anthropomorphism There is no instance of anthropomorphism in this poem.

4 Blending Manipulation of speed by the poet can be understood as blending (or interaction) of an imaginary poetic world and the physical space. There are few examples of spatial blending or manual blending, although the image of the cross-hairs on the child s head could be seen as the marksman s image of the cross-hairs in the same space at the child. Eyegaze The poet takes a character s gaze throughout this poem. The entire story is directly shown and never told, so there is no narrator. Consequently, because the poet does not take the role of a narrator, he does not look at the audience. The downward gaze of the marksman toward his target is symbolic as it metaphorically shows his power over the child. Eyegaze plays an important role in moving the story in absence of manual signs. At 1:21, the man shifts his gaze from lower left (the boy on the swing) to upper right, foretelling the location of the marksman before it is actually signed. Handshape The majority of the signs use closed handshapes. There are occasional uses of 1 handshape (CROSS-HAIR, BULLET), but open handshapes (B or 5) are rarely used. The absence of such open, positive and unmarked handshapes contributes to the tense and edgy atmosphere of this poem. Neologism There are not many examples of neologism beyond the recurring and central image of the cross-hairs. Symmetry Symmetry is unmarked in this poem and asymmetric signs are mostly used to represent negative concepts. Signs with left and right symmetry are used to build up the basic story-line of this poem (SWING, SKIPPING-ROPES, RUN). Signs with negative connotation, such as CROSS-HAIRS and GUN, are two-handed, but they are less symmetric - i.e. both hands are in the same handshape, but their placement does not result in a perfect mirror image. The sign for BULLET is onehanded and asymmetric.

5 Use of Space The boy is consistently located on the left. The marksman is located on the upper right. Thus the attack (the bullet path) crosses the signing space diagonaly from upper right to lower left. This downward movement places the innocent boy at the bottom of the signing space, possibly emphasising his helplessness against a larger force. Similar spatial structure can be found in Donna Williams Duck and Dissertation. Any Other Comment