[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.
[In announcing the publication of my latest book of poems from Black Widow Press, I thought the following postface might be of interest in what I say about the book’s title and the concerns that inform the book as a whole. Further information, for those who seek it, can be found at the Black Widow website, but for now I would hope to make the context of the work, including a number of procedural and aleatory poems, as clear as possible.
Poems and poetics