Zeshan Syed


Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts

When Shaykh Jalal al-Din Rumi admonishes us to “Listen to the song of the reed flute / lamenting its separation from the marsh,” I see that strange longing permeating language, turning correct spelling of words into songs of separation from the alphabetic order.

In the Final Year of my Master of Fine Arts here at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I have worked on developing a polytemporal poetics that I call “hyperform” poetry.

My thesis considers the ecstasy of language, both on a micro level when I examine the art and science of anagrams, and on a macro level when I consider the surconscious transcendence of the poet/artist who demonstrates the Sufi saying, “It is better to be used for wisdom than to be wise.”