Coeur Chronique
In Paris now, on the day of the opening of the Marché de la Poésie, a great yearly 4 day event. One major pleasure will be to meet up with old friend Eric Sarner. I had been very happy to learn a couple months ago that this excellent poet, my good friend & sometime translator, was awarded the Prix Max Jacob 1914 for his latest book of poetry, Coeur Chronique published by the Castor Astral with a preface by Michel Deguy. Sarner is a true nomad who lives between Berlin, Paris & Montevideo. Besides a number of poetry collections he has also published several travel récits (most recently a superb book on Algeria (Un voyage en Algéries) and Sur la route 66 (travels in the US, of course), and has made a living via twenty plus film documentaries for television.
Here is an extract from a section called “Experience of Winter” that feels/reads like a continuous/discontinuous ribbon of writing with just momentary breathing pauses, mawaqif’s in Sufi parlance, between the perceptions:
[…]
To flee poetry
to let it flee
to let go
the brilliance
through the black groove
on the lam without reason
nothing pretty
for example
in Montaigneto shit in a basket
and then
to put it
on one’s headthere’s need to find
for each thing its
rightful place
oh! that silent cat
over there
carefully without words
to flee poetry
leaving it the chance
to come back by the edgesVallejo exaggerates
he who came from
the heights3000 meters
of andean mountainslittle black man
resting on his hand
his cane
meditatingwhile Georgette
guards his hattriste & dulce
trilce
Vallejo saluted
this past spring
at the Montparnasse cemetery
section XIIat the end of
terraced nature
and the sparrow blockbut
without even his shadowThis book Diary of Errors
I knew Ennio Flaiano for his complicity
with Fellini La Dolce vita & 8 1/2
but the title before all had stopped me livened
up notes, stories, parables, word sketches
the simplicity, delicateness
of Flaiano
an elderly checkout lady in a bar
sighs caressing her dogThe chestnut trees are in flower
and spring is not here.he speaks also of feet
set firmly on the clouds
and on another day he confesses to have
told a seven year old girlGo away! You’re old!
It made her cry all night long
Thus all that lives
has a share in
breath
& smell
That’s Empedocles of Agrigentothe hidden breath
where then lurks
the smell of self
is what made
us recognizable
by the other
when he was
lost
naked in the shadow
without a living body
or on the edge
of a nerve
of a doubt
terrifyingNo illusion on the soprano
the final accurateness
& nothing else
that’s Lacy
the grace
absolute & relative
often with no smile
either
on Steve’s face
so that there exploded
on it like a rage of
innocence
a flood of colors
a tornado
of heat as simple &
complex
as each moment
so ready to live[…]