1.0The Global Centre for Advanced Studieshttps://gcas.ie/arCreston Davishttps://gcas.ie/ar/author/crestondaviscc1a46ceec/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="aolu7HXFMN"><a href="https://gcas.ie/ar/2025/06/12/2025-5-12-epigraph-becomes-epitaph/">Epigraph Becomes Epitaph</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://gcas.ie/ar/2025/06/12/2025-5-12-epigraph-becomes-epitaph/embed/#?secret=aolu7HXFMN" width="600" height="338" title="“Epigraph Becomes Epitaph” — The Global Centre for Advanced Studies" data-secret="aolu7HXFMN" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://gcas.ie/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js </script>https://i0.wp.com/gcas.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/EpigraphBecomes_Symbol.webp?fit=2000%2C1125&ssl=120001125In Epigraph Becomes Epitaph, GCAS’s Ph.D. researcher, Jacob Martino traces the symbolic arc of human consciousness, which is etched into verse—where beginning and end collapse into a single ontological gesture. Drawing from psychoanalysis, Buddhist philosophy, and existential critique, the poem journeys through the dialectic of desire and death, tracing Thanatos and Eros not as opposites but as co-constructors of subjectivity.What begins as inscription becomes extinction—not through erasure, but transformation. Here, resolution is revealed not as closure, but as a residue of what is hidden, displaced, or deferred. The poem meditates on the epistemic limits of the cogito, the recursive grip of trauma, and the compulsion to repeat in the absence of final meaning.It is a text that folds time into tension, language into loss, and selfhood into symbol. A philosophical elegy, an aesthetic koan—Epigraph Becomes Epitaph is less about what is written, and more about what writing tries—and inevitably fails—to contain.