Pit Flower

Sergio Torres-Mart璯ez is professor of cognitive linguistics, semiotics and translation semiotics. Among his main interests are Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar, Cognitive Semantics, embodiment theory, phenomenology, Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, Peircean semiotics and the cognitive applications of construction grammar (Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar). Current research projects include the conceptualization of construction grammar as an interdisciplinary field of endeavor connecting embodiment theory, neuroscience semiotics and philosophy for the construction of a comprehensive and systematic description of constructional attachment patterns across languages. Central to this research is the need to provide linguistics with a model of the mind that complements linguistic description.

Dear reader. The multilingual compilation of poems is indebted to my work as an artist. I do not intend to position poetry over painting. It would also be inaccurate to see in the present work an outgrowth of my artistic forays into the world of painting: Both worlds stand on equal footing as universes worth inhabiting.
As a linguist, I see in language a superb vehicle of artistic expression. Over the years, however, I have come to realize that something was missing. I had made some painting before, but never saw myself as a genuine artist. This has changed, though. The book your holding in your hands, however flawed, is my first gesture toward changing my own scepticism.
As the attentive reader will notice, there is a strong connection between my painting and my poetry, the most conspicuous being my rejection of convention. Granted, there is still much of it to help the reader identify some influences: The gothic embellishment with Poe and Baudelaire, the cautious affinity with the rationality and mathematical ambition of Borges, and the cynicism of Verlaine.
My sole ambition for now is to find a voice that reflects my thinking and makes my art whole.
Thank you for purchasing this book.