Author note: The Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) is the oldest chronicle ever produced in Japan, compiled in the years 711-12 CE by the court noble Ō no Yasumaro at the request of the Empress Genmei, who reigned 707 to 715 CE. It begins with the creation of the world, describing the actions of the gods and goddesses as they create the earth and society, then it connects these myths to the earliest history of the Japanese nation.
[The following is a classic statement on voice and breath by Charlie Morrow, who for many years has been my collaborator and close companion (at times my mentor) in the elaboration of performative works that touch on both music and verbal language. The occasion for posting it here is the appearance of a retrospective gathering of Morrow’s written work, The Book of Numbers and Spells, set for publication this year by Sean McCann and Recital in Los Angeles.
[Following the death this month of George Economou, I am posting again this definitive review of his masterwork Ananios of Kleitor, which appeared earlier in the blogger edition of Poems and Poetics, before I was simultaneously posting on Jacket2. The review itself, originally published in The Times Literary Supplement, July 24, 2009, is available in its original format here. (J.R.)]
[What follows is an extraordinary example of experimental translingual writing, the movement in this instance between English and German, while encompassing, if I read it correctly, an underlying narrative of rape and nonbinary gender realities embedded in a series of questions that continue to build/bild from start to finish.
Poems and poetics