When I read poetry I'll occasionally try to listen for the voice of the poet in my head. Trying to visualize — or whatever the equivalent for hearing something that you can't hear is — someone's voice is a fun proposition, but in the end your no closer to knowing what the person sounds like than you were when you opened the book.

Hearing the inflections and the nuances that an author gives a piece sometimes makes a world of difference in how you interpret a person's work, and it can help you understand a little of how he or she sees the world. The closest analogy I can think of is watching a play versus reading a script off the page. You might think you've got the meaning of the words, but then you hear the actors speaking the lines and gain new understanding and depths of perception.

Now, there are some poems and poets where the meaning isn't that far below the surface. It doesn't take a post doctorate in English literature to figure out the meaning of a Hallmark card or the equivalent that passes for emotional truths in most of today's world. But there are still writers and work out there where hearing a reading does add another layer of meaning.

It's recently been my good fortune to receive a number of books from Perceval Press of the work of poet/painter/photographer/actor Viggo Mortensen. Leaving aside his work as an actor, although a case could be made for that as well, Mr. Mortensen's work is that of an observer of those things that most of us would walk by and not give a second thought to.

Specifically in his photographs and poetry, the impression that comes across is that the scene under observation, or the object on view through his lens, was simply waiting for him to wander by with pen and paper or camera. What it is that attracts his eye or his ear is what he is attempting to communicate to us through his work.

Dennis Hopper says in his introduction to Viggo's book, Recent Forgeries, that art in the twenty-first century has hopefully reached the point where we are beyond fascination with technique and are content with allowing it to inspire reflection. In other words we should be able to sit, listen, look, hear, and feel without having to particularly understand what the artist has done to achieve an affect.