Category Archives: Poetry

Braking Break

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Francois Lachance

waves, their sonority. Via Marcus McCann adapting some lines (quoting with variation), I took to looking at Mark Doty “Notebook/To Lucien Freud/On the Veil” collected in School of the Arts first appeared in the London Review of Books (Vol. 27 … Continue reading →

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A Fine Swine Time

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Conceit is more than aggrandized ego; it is also a figure of speech, extended metaphor. Take for instance these concluding lines to “Please Can I Have a Man” Who, when I come trotting in from the bathroom like a squealing … Continue reading →

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Cantos de Huexotzingo

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Francois Lachance

On the street a page torn from a book and on one side this poem, on the other a map. It was the poem that made me keep the piece of paper and bring it home for further study. Must … Continue reading →

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The Surrender of Losing Count

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Francois Lachance

The page numbering stops at 50 in Betsy Warland’s open is broken but the counting doesn’t. The table of contents gives the notes section to be at page 55 and if one counts there is indeed between poem and notes … Continue reading →

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Snow Snowing

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Francois Lachance

The opening lines from Émile Nelligan‘s “Soir d’hiver” came to mind Ah! comme la neige a neigé! Ma vitre est un jardin de givre when I read Alice Oswald’s rendition of an extended simile from Homer’s Iliad Like snow falling … Continue reading →

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Adverb Reverb

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Francois Lachance

In the introduction to Trish Salah’s Wanting in Arabic Lisa Robertson proposes that A lyric culture will always be wildly embodied. And the body can be made to surface with very slight resources if one is aware of the power … Continue reading →

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Owe Awe

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Francois Lachance

In terza rima James Pollock takes us on a tour of Quarry Park, Madison, Wisconsin. The tour includes a duet with a cardinal, musings on the shaping of the landscape by ice-age glacial pressure, the tumbling climb and repeated exertions … Continue reading →

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Affinities

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Francois Lachance

I am reading a book by Mutlu Blasing entitled Lyric Poetry: The Pain and Pleasure of Words. It’s a bit dense in parts. Clunky of sorts. But it does meticulously propose with unctuous prose what the “I” intentionally constructs as … Continue reading →

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Inaccessible Residual

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Searching for what is just out of reach leads us in another direction to look into. Such is the impression generated by Edward Carson’s poetry where the repetitions and echoes provide switchbacks for an never ending road. Take the opening … Continue reading →

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Reductions Introduce Nuances

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Francois Lachance

In a type of braiding experiment, Brian Henry weaves a poem where the lines that appeared in five-line stanzas get carried over in a different order in four-line stanzas and the repetition continues through three and then ultimately in couplets. … Continue reading →

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