Category Archives: Poetry

It Bears Repeating

Posted on September 27, 2008 by Francois Lachance

From Zbigniew Herbert “Chord” as translated by Alissa Valles and found in The Collected Poems 1956-1998. a good memory cures the scar a loss leaves I’ve no idea about the original Polish. I do like the polysemy offered by the … Continue reading →

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Handkerchiefs Waving

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Francois Lachance

“Brise Marine” in Stéphane Mallarmé: Selected Poetry and Prose is beautifully translated by Peter and Mary Ann Caws. Croit encore à l’adieu suprême des mouchoirs! is rendered most delicately as Has faith still in great fluttering farewells! So very felicitous. … Continue reading →

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Integrity and Memory and Praise

Posted on September 20, 2008 by Francois Lachance

For a co-worker moving on to other work… if I were to laud her, I would point to her integrity and her love of poetry and I would quote from Robin Blaser’s essay “Particles” collected in The Fire: Collected Essays … Continue reading →

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White Egrets: scattered fragments

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Derek Walcott ends one of the poems collected in White Egrets with the following evocative lines: be grateful that you wrote well in this place, let the torn poems sail from you like a flock of white egrets in a … Continue reading →

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Shinkichi Takahashi

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto chose to conclude The Penguin Book of Zen Poetry with selections from the poetry of Shinkichi Takahashi. The concluding poem is jaunty in tone. ABSENCE Just say, ‘He’s out’ — back in five billion years! … Continue reading →

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What are these shores?

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Francois Lachance

In the collection of poems Mourning in the burned house by Margaret Atwood there is a section devoted to the slow but definite decline of an aged father. In this section, one of the poems is called “King Lear in … Continue reading →

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Glory and Process

Posted on August 22, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Edmund White has suggested that there is something alchemical about James Merrill’s poetry. He suggests that the “alertness to transubstantiation is the religious impulse behind Merrill’s verse.” Take for example this excerpt from a poem from The Inner Room Open … Continue reading →

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A Peeling

Posted on July 20, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Line from Robert Kelly A California Journal (1969). memory has its onion for the eye A line so good almost makes one cry. And so for day 585 20.07.2008

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Potential Transplant

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Francois Lachance

From “Foreign Children” from Robert Louis Stevenson A Child’s Garden of Verses Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, Little frosty Eskimo, Little Turk or Japanee. Oh! don’t you wish you were me? And on the poetic voice goes to extoll the … Continue reading →

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Scratches, Pauses

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Reflecting on Barthes invoking tmesis (also spelt tsmesis), thinking about pauses in our reading and how skimming is like swimming, I come to realize that speed like going slow is a fast way to the undertones of the undertow of … Continue reading →

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