Hank Lazer’s shape-writing walks a very narrow bridge, which is — as the Hasidic mystic, Reb Nahman of Breslov teaches — the world itself, hung across a shattering vessel, swung in awesome cosmic doubt.
[The following commentary is taken from the gathering of North and South American poetry (“from origins to present”) that Javier Taboada and I are now preparing and that includes a different poem of Martínez’s, but Sarano’s attempt, as shown here, is the first at a broader range of translation. (J.R.)]
[Himself on the cusp between “outside” and “inside” poetry and art, Chirot, whose work, both verbal and visual, is a great, too-often hidden resource, wrote from an authoritative if barely visible position in contemporary letters. The depth and breadth of his total oeuvre — the rubbings and collages foremost — is outstanding.
[Moira Roth (1933–2021), English-born and American-based critic, art historian, and writer of fictional plays, poems, and narratives, was an expert on Marcel Duchamp and much else. She wrote extensively about women and performance art in California and was for many years on the faculties of the University of California San Diego and at Mills College in Oakland, California. Performance works of her own, like the following, were an integral part of her oeuvre and call now for a serious re-viewing. (J.R.)]
Poems and poetics