Last week, Vicki had a visit from an NP for an annual home visit. When she saw all of the art in our yard, she asked,”what’s your muse?”

That question sent me on a journey down the River of Thought, whichdocked at the term “the signifier and the signified.” This relates directly to semiology, the study of sign processes, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the sign’s interpreter.

Thus the word tree is the signifier and an oak is the signified. This relates directly to my world of poetry, wherein the signifier is altered by meter, lyricism and rhyme, such that a poem about trees might not ever use the word tree in it. This expands the phrase to “the signifier of the signifier and the signified.” That describes much of poetry.

Of all of Vicki and my collaborative art efforts, by far our most successful on has been a 10X10 wall print that contains our marriage poem adorned by different art on each piece such that the words are the same, but each is an original art piece.

Wedding wishes
Share the dishes
Laugh long, Laugh loud,
Years of kisses

Besides the rhyme, alliteration, and assonance, the hidden sign in this poem that makes it so desirable is that when it is spoken, it hasan iambic beat, which is the same as the lub-dub of the human heartbeat, and the shaman’s drumbeat.

There are many levels in the world of a poem.
And I am happy to be a provider.