*Ostranenie* is a literary term coined by Russian writer and critic Viktor Shklovsky to describe how art takes reality out of context, making the ordinary seem strange.
Stare at any one thing
long enough
it recedes into form
without meaning.
Roof edge beyond the window
becomes a floating angle, abstract
against cloud-clotted background,
rain layered foreground.
Say anything over and over,
word you love or word you loathe
it reduces to sound,
to nonsense.
As a meditation,
this nudges us
closer to edges,
toward wilder realms rarely visited.
But be wary of ideas
ranted over and over.
They lose something too,
lose the softness of grass on bare feet,
of hand touching hand. They become
strictures against the way rain speaks,
barriers to what nourishes
the ground we are.
Very nice indeed. This poem makes me feel closer not only to the writer but to what I see.
such a fine turn in this poem, such a sweet and shocking surprise about the nature of seeing–my startled brain leapt up in ovation! oh!
Very seldom have I seen or heard of what it’s like to live in the world of art on an everyday basis. This poem says it so well … I will read it over & over!
beautiful feat of explaining and at the same time translating the concept of *ostranenie* into an utterly physical and unabstract I’ll be quoting this!
Fantastic! This is now my favorite word. If you can have one, a favorite word, that is. I myself, a Sagtittarian, have a little joke regarding this word. Its ‘also, see Sagittarius’, added onto the definition of Ostranenie, ha! Because, its sooooo true. All-in-all, a great concept, a great word. I only wish it had an edjective tense attached to it, one I cannot find. I gues I’ll have to make one up, Ostranenian, I suppose! Lol.