Joseph A. Miller, Compound
Witness
Dom Blanco
“Rather than a feeling, witness is a position. It insists on embodiment, on sacrifice, mourning and resisting what is seen . . . The witness is the one who holds the line of reality, identifying and refusing the lie of normalcy. Broken by what we see, we become rupture incarnate.”
—Sarah Aziza
Noun
Verb
Because the noun can be thought of in the present & in the past of the verb i.e.
I am witness / I was witness.
Because the noun & verb is the intimacy we both share personally & publicly,
privately & openly.
Because the noun is not exclusive to the eyes, but also to the totality of the body that is witness & because the verb is not only to sight, but also to the remainder of the senses:
to hear, to smell, to taste, to touch.
Because the noun is not, typically, limited to a crime or accident.
Because the verb is not, typically, limited to a crime or accident.
Because Sarah Aziz is right in her essay “The Work of the Witness,” that far too often, in English, we think of “witness” in terms of the criminal court.
Because the word Palestinians use is the verb to witness, to describe those lost to Israeli violence is shaheed–شهيد–which means witnesser but is often translated as martyr.
Because I need help translating, the Spanish word for witness is testigo which makes my English brain think the word testimony, & is defined as a formal written or spoken statement, especially one given in a court of law–that, again, is in terms of the criminal court.
Because martyr, like witness, is both a noun & a verb that constitutes the truth about our world:
its beauty, violence, mystery, serious-ness.
Because we each are witness in a particular direction
to a particular something
at a particular someone we are evidence /
proof we incite our experience as witness: its beauty, violence, mystery, serious-
ness.
Because the verb is to be cut open by the wound into the wound, we are exposed to what we,
as noun, witness.
Because the prefix wit- means we all can connect what we witness to the prefix -ness, or the quality of what we witness, with how we each think & feel.
Because the noun & the verb witness are coupled like the earth & its moon. We too are strength:
our pull to one another.
Dom Blanco
“Rather than a feeling, witness is a position. It insists on embodiment, on sacrifice, mourning and resisting what is seen . . . The witness is the one who holds the line of reality, identifying and refusing the lie of normalcy. Broken by what we see, we become rupture incarnate.”
—Sarah Aziza
Noun
- a person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place
- evidence; proof
Verb
- see (an event, typically a crime or accident) take place
- have knowledge of (an event or change) from personal observation or experience
Because the noun can be thought of in the present & in the past of the verb i.e.
I am witness / I was witness.
Because the noun & verb is the intimacy we both share personally & publicly,
privately & openly.
Because the noun is not exclusive to the eyes, but also to the totality of the body that is witness & because the verb is not only to sight, but also to the remainder of the senses:
to hear, to smell, to taste, to touch.
Because the noun is not, typically, limited to a crime or accident.
Because the verb is not, typically, limited to a crime or accident.
Because Sarah Aziz is right in her essay “The Work of the Witness,” that far too often, in English, we think of “witness” in terms of the criminal court.
Because the word Palestinians use is the verb to witness, to describe those lost to Israeli violence is shaheed–شهيد–which means witnesser but is often translated as martyr.
Because I need help translating, the Spanish word for witness is testigo which makes my English brain think the word testimony, & is defined as a formal written or spoken statement, especially one given in a court of law–that, again, is in terms of the criminal court.
Because martyr, like witness, is both a noun & a verb that constitutes the truth about our world:
its beauty, violence, mystery, serious-ness.
Because we each are witness in a particular direction
to a particular something
at a particular someone we are evidence /
proof we incite our experience as witness: its beauty, violence, mystery, serious-
ness.
Because the verb is to be cut open by the wound into the wound, we are exposed to what we,
as noun, witness.
Because the prefix wit- means we all can connect what we witness to the prefix -ness, or the quality of what we witness, with how we each think & feel.
Because the noun & the verb witness are coupled like the earth & its moon. We too are strength:
our pull to one another.