Category Archives: Poetry

To Keep a Diary

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Thomas Meyer. “Isis’ Memory” in The Umbrella of Aesculapius Practice attunes one. At first the diary of day &/or dream does no more than record, but in its persistence & dullness it instills the keeper with a certain & previously … Continue reading →

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Who?

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Thomas Meyer is a master of the epigrammatic form. His condensations open up and waft like honeysuckle. Ghost stories have all the facts & none of the                        answers. from The Bang Book And so for day 1470 22.12.2010

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Con Stellations

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Souvankham Thammavongsa in Small Arguments has a number of portraits of fruit. This one is not there. It shines in another galaxy. It comes from an earlier chapbook Still Life and provides a lovely coda to the suite of poems … Continue reading →

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Pet Metaphors

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Robert Kelly introduction to Thomas Meyer The Umbrella of Aesculapius. Each age of poetry seems to have a pet metaphor drawn from other arts for an inward vision of its own nature; so in the sixteenth the stage, seventeenth the … Continue reading →

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Wink Wink

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Francois Lachance

The limitations of flirtation. IX our winks waste a good thing Thomas Meyer, from “Ten love notes” in The Umbrella of Aesculapius The flirtations of limitations. And so for day 1465 17.12.2010

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A Viral N

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Jim Smith. Virus Underwich Editions, 1983 A truncated alphabet (each section being labelled with a letter and the series ending at O) N is distinguished by its line breaks (the others have run on prose). You wake up one morning … Continue reading →

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Small Argument with Small Arguments

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Francois Lachance

There are two versions of “Water” 2001 – Still Life 2003 – Small Arguments takes shape / uncertain of its own / in the palm, in glass / lifting to drain and takes shape / uncertain of its own: // … Continue reading →

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Thermometer Metrics

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Francois Lachance

It’s been animated by Kat Burns. http://souvankham-thammavongsa.com/thermometer.html What I miss in viewing the animation is the columnar display of the poem on the page. Thermometer, A Diagram of The human body is marked between two points The point water boils … Continue reading →

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Genetic Litterbug

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Francois Lachance

If you find yourself referring to babies as sperm sculptures, you might like section four (“The First-Born”) in James Merrill’s Peter where you can find a beautiful line about the subject of the poem who is no slouch in the … Continue reading →

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Reader as Camera

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Francois Lachance

George Steiner expresses with beautiful precision “At their finest, the criteria of orality and the cinematographic fuse perfectly” in his review of Christopher Logue’s War Music [Times Literary Supplement 15 February 2002]. The directions emerge from the action. [Achilles has … Continue reading →

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