I recommend seeking out Anonymous Landscape, a many-faceted image painted in verse by poet Yuko Otomo during her travels in France. Published by Lithic Press in 2019, this timeless work challenges the solidity of nouns.

She wonders if the early hunters and gatherers had names, if the food they collected had names, if the animals painted on the cave walls had names.

She warns, “when you are too conscious of the self/ you are confined inside your name.”

As I read, her poetry brings to mind the mystery of the phrase, “it’s snowing.” To what does “it” refer? The sky isn’t snowing, nor do we say, “the clouds are snowing.” We perceive the clouds as just releasing the snow. We don’t even say, “the weather is snowing.” We are so devoted to nouns, we have to insert a pronoun even where no noun is intended.

But what can one do?

“How do I become a verb?” she asks.

Some languages are not so noun-heavy, or blur the distinction between nouns and verbs. Some say that affects a person’s perception.

The intrepid Yuko Otomo is willing to challenge herself. At one moment in her exploration she observes a vase with flowers. She says, “I try to look at them / without relating / to their names / this way / I erase the boundary/ between myself & them.”

This is a journey worth taking.