DescriptionIdiolect is a collection of poems grappling with the ineffability of the divine, giving particular consideration to language and its role as our primary tool for engaging with its depiction. The creative work in this collection utilizes research conducted over a period of three semesters in the fields of linguistics and cognitive psychology, and explores communication as both an imperfect, isolating apparatus and a miracle of meaning-making. The speaker crafts elaborate odes to language, but also curses it — using humor to underline its shortcomings. Miscommunication, or barriers to understanding, is a thematic thread that connects poems about family, religion, illness, and the body.
Linguists define “idiolect” as the speech habits peculiar to one particular person. This collection is one particular poet’s attempt at "saying the thing" to the best of her ability, wrestling with the limitations of her own understanding, and her own language.