Twice Alive

by Forrest Gander

Nature — through flowers, mountains, birds, animals, barren lands, forests, seasons — corresponds with the “inner landscape” of the individual.

The translocation/dislocation of “the natural order of things” is quite unique to Sangam poetry. In other words, the “exterior” precisely relates to the one who beholds it — through varied emotions created by states of longing, craving, union, fulfillment, separation, infidelity, betrayal, and so on. Thus, “nature” is what the human mind makes of it.

“nature” extends beyond itself to “become” a metaphor of the mind. The metamorphosis of nature in Sangam poetry is essentially an internalization of the exterior landscape, dissolving distinctions of opposition and separation between the self’s intensity of experience and the so-called impassive spirit of physical reality.

“Nature” is congruent with the human spirit.

There is no act of transgression or violation of the sanctity of one realm by another, which in strict temporal terms is an alien entity.

Gander’s “Sangam Acoustics” needs to be read as a spontaneous and deeply reflective incarnation of the “Sangam consciousness,”

The uniqueness of each spatiotemporal realm is kept ethically intact.

The sharp nuances, the subtle tones, and the deep colors of each landscape work to brilliantly uphold the universality of the human spirit that — though strongly bound to its physical world — strives to transcend crippling boundaries of time and space through the strength of concrete experiences and not through vague and amorphous ideas.

“These are the stamps on the final envelope.”