Category Archives: Poetry

Metallurgy

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Francois Lachance

On the page it looks like this: Once a critic described the craft of a poet as flawed by belief, as it it ran like crooked seam through precious ore In my mind it reads like this: Once a critic … Continue reading →

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Gifts, Graces, & the Greek Anthology

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Francois Lachance

W.S. Merwin translates Antiphilos (1st century A.D.). It’s a poem addressed to a lady and transmits three gifts: a tunic, some wool and some perfume. Merwin (in Selected Translations: 1968-1978) concludes this poetic gift giving thus […] I want the … Continue reading →

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Middles Could Be Titles

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Francois Lachance

It could be a place to end says Philip Whalen about a line in a poem by Lew Welch “Springtime in the Rockies, Lichen”. These are the stamps on the final envelope. Whalen says That’s a great piece of news … Continue reading →

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ON MAJUSCULES

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Francois Lachance

The poetry of Roberto Juarroz has been translated into English by W.S. Merwin among others. In Merwin’s Selected Translations: 1968-1978 there is a poem by Juarroz wherein is depicted a man and his strange encounter with capital letters. They are … Continue reading →

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One Pig Two Animals

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Henri Cole. Touch. Two poems stand out for me by their connected theme of the insufficiency of body to achieve transcendental states. Take “Pig” in which the speaker is driving behind a flatbed truck and contemplates the “poor patient pig” … Continue reading →

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House Less Home

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Francois Lachance

1984. Daphne Marlatt. Touch to My Tongue. “houseless”. what is at stake here is an epistemology of the erotic — how ways of knowing include ways of being together i can only be, no vessel but a movement running, out … Continue reading →

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From Catalyst

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Sitting in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a treat. It is like sitting in a restaurant waiting for the dish to be served up. One delicious item is Autumnal by Thomas Meyer published by Catalyst in 1975. The … Continue reading →

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Global View of Canine Feces

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Francois Lachance

W.S. Merwin in Selected Translations 1968-1978 has rendered selections from Asia which he gathers under the rubrics Japanese Figures, Chinese Figures and Korean Figures. The pieces are two-liners (they don’t quite function like couplets) without any direct links between them. … Continue reading →

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Invitations To A Certain View

Posted on January 3, 2010 by Francois Lachance

One writer encounters another in a series of concentrations. Gertrude Stein Tender Buttons is available online via Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15396/15396-h/15396-h.htm From the section on Objects. A BOX. Out of kindness comes redness and out of rudeness comes rapid same question, … Continue reading →

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In Pursuit

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Francois Lachance

We are attracted. We are repulsed. And still we flutter. Puzzled. Joy Kogawa in the middle of a poem (“Hangnail”) has a description of the death of a moth. The poem is found in A Choice of Dreams. The passage … Continue reading →

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