we don’t know what we have done to the river it shines under a sun that no longer sets or what it has done to us yes if the painting is us and the landscape flows the moments that have no future carry us and what we did not know how to say overflows in a flash the words that tell more than we can know it’s the fold left by a poem at the corner of the mouth on Ronsard’s bust love as smooth as a statue it comes to a halt on posters it puts eyes on our fingers and fingers down our legs it moves the red one that sinks and the other beautiful ones it stirs the night that lights the moon and the starry crowds the tower that sends the birds through the window while scholars talk about poetry
Henri Meschonnic (1932-2009) is a key figure of French “new poetics,” best known worldwide for his translations of the Old Testament and his Critique du rythme: Anthropologie historique du langage. His poetry prizes include Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize, the Guillevic-Ville de Saint-Malo Grand Prize for Poetry, Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Gabriella Bedetti's translations of Meschonic’s essays have appeared in New Literary History and Critical Inquiry. She interviewed him in Diacritics and wrote on his work in New Literary History.
Don Boes's poems offer serious wordplay and deadpan seriousness. He has written three books, Good Luck with That (FutureCycle Press), Railroad Crossing (Finishing Line Press), and The Eighth Continent (Northeastern University Press). The Eighth Continent was selected by award-winning poet A. R. Ammons to receive the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize.
