Category Archives: Poetry

Light and Its Aftereffects

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Francois Lachance

Lux fiat. Verbum est. Stepping out of the tradition into a displacement of sorts. this account of light as an acquired characteristic became propositional just as every forest would come to speak to us as a verb “North by South” … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Radius of Radiance

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Francois Lachance

We set here as a prelude to a page from Ronald Johnson Radi Os (Berkeley: Sand Dollar, 1977) what are the concluding lines of T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding”, the last of the Four Quartets. Not known, because not looked for … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

The Fullness of Words

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Francois Lachance

Adrienne Rich Sources The Heyeck Press, Woodside, 1983 The poem ends with the expressed desire to rest “among the beautiful and common weeds” but recognizes there is no such rest. A phrase has occurred at intervals throughout the sequence: an … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged | Leave a comment

Interstitial

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Francois Lachance

If there is any doubt about the technical term “bearing down” it would be dispelled by one look at the cover of Penny Chalmers (Penn Kemp) Bearing Down (Coach House Press, 1972). It is of course about the joys and … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Expansive Minimalism

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Francois Lachance

Ronald Johnson Eyes & Objects (Catalogue for an Exhibition: 1970-72) Jargon Society, 1976 The beginning from “The Inside-out Sphere” I offer this sphere I found, like water held in a rind of light. And an ending from the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Joy is Not Happiness; It is Happy – A Matter of Luck

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Francois Lachance

George Johnston in “Convocation Address: Queen’s University, 29/5/71” distinguishes between happiness and joy. Love is very dear.      Happiness, unhappiness, getting our own way and so forth cost the Earth. But joy      is free, unasked-for, unexpected, undeserved      as an honorary degree. … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Liminal

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Francois Lachance

At the end, on the last page of A Poem As Long As The Highway by Douglas Barbour there is a set of lines that mark the ongoing nature of the poem as an act of cognition (learning). Set off-centre … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In the Earth’s Shadow

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Francois Lachance

Eclipse. Iris. All night the blood moon measures the dilation of your pupil, pinprick or dinner plate in this plenum where our attention fails to die. A stanza from one of the poems (there are many) entitled “Standard Time” in … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Leaf by Leaf by Colour

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Francois Lachance

It could have been laid out as a pair with a caesura: bronze by bronze, crimson by reft crimson or stacked via line breaks: bronze by bronze, crimson by reft crimson but instead we have a stress on “reft” resulting … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged | Leave a comment

Majestic Is Often Used

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Francois Lachance

Words are insufficient: the mountains “remain to be described” And yet the poet establishes a sort of grandeur “in whatever mode”: They wait to be described […] geologist, surveyor, artist: crowsfeet on a map, the heavy colours cut and carved, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment