Social Semiotics
- Social Semiotics
Two fingers, tip touchingMeans spark. An arm highOverhead says me. TheseLines & curves, in factThese very signs rightHere (&) say stop, go,connect.
O t-cross and i-dot!O right thumb and bentKnee! O double blink,O air hug! You areThe signals we needTo read the human,The other octagonAnd flashing light.
Chin nod and fist bump,You are the figure'sfont:The letter, the dashInked on the body's page— [End Page 54]
Dean Rader has published widely in the fields of poetry, American Indian studies, and popular culture. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days (Truman State University Press, 2010), won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, judged by Claudia Keelan. It was a finalist for the Bob Bush Memorial Award for a First Book of Poems, and it won the 2010 Writer's League of Texas Poetry Prize. In 2011 he was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Louis Hammer Award, judged by David Lehman, and in 2012 one of his poems was selected by Mark Doty for Best American Poetry, 2012. Rader is currently a professor of English at the University of San Francisco, where he won the 2010-11 Distinguished Research Award.
