What is this face with its white border, furrowed lines and flared nostrils? Its mountain or triangle, with a spade propped against it, drawing us to the closed left eye, which gives a sense of peace or tiredness. The mouth is a ledge, somewhere to place the feet, the nose something to hold on to with the hands. And up we go, step by step, furrow by furrow, until we are on the smooth surface at the top, able to look around. The jagged line will take us down again, the triangle formed by a path, where people, to avoid the angle, have created a shortcut.

Meanwhile, in language, there is also eros. The word itself spells “sore” and “rose”, it is in “horse” and “shore”. “Penis” is in “pencil” or “spoon”, while “bowl” is “womb”. This step in the alphabet allows us to connect “womb” with “wound” or even “world” (b-d, addition of u/r). We are brought into the world through eros, and the world itself is a kind of womb (a template) that provides a growing process. “Semen” is in “cement” – it is made to prevent the egg from detaching. And “egg” is an unravelled “o” away from “ego” – a new being, one that will have to find its way and avoid the pitfalls of “ogre” or “yoke” (g-k, addition of r/y). Eros is the preserve of a loving and committed relationship; we must beware of what our mind can conceive and go beyond this to contemplation. And, last of all, “tired” is in “tender”, the closed eye, the scaled mountain, the gentle submission.