Where is This Thing Going? and A Seat Beyond the Sounds

By Deidre Sullivan

Where is This Thing Going?

Are you the subject?
Am I the verb?
Who’s the object?
Let’s slur our words.

Let’s spill our drinks
And fall on the floor.
Let’s open the windows
And slam a door.

Are you mixed up?
I’m so confused.
Is it time for quiet?
Is it time to choose?

Is that a period?
Could this be the end?
I like commas,
And empty parens.

A Seat Beyond the Sounds

ABC is where we start
XYZ is where we part, unless

there’s more to hear and say, unless
there is another way.

May I shut the door on words out loud and find
a seat beyond the sounds--

to join the wind, the sky, the earth,
the language that we spoke at birth--

minor sevenths, major thirds, the spill
of pebbles, the stir of birds?

Let this old language light a spark, so I
can find you in the dark.

Deidre Sullivan is a senior vice president at Verve, a global insights agency based in London. She leads Verve’s North American practice out of New York.  Deidre’s focus on is on multi-method research leaning heavily into semiotics. Deidre is the author of What Do We Mean When We Say God? (Doubleday), a book of quotes and thoughts from discussions with hundreds of Americans about God. She also put together The Ultimate College Shoppers’ Guide (Addison-Wesley), a book of 327 lists about college life. Deidre is a graduate of Brown University and holds an advanced training certificate in Applied Mythology from the Pacific Graduate Institute.