Articles - May 2021

The New Poetry (1969)

Translated by Zane Koss

Photo courtesy of Clemente Padín.

Syntax, subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, syntagma, paramoiosis, redundancy, dictionaries, adjectivization; unifying strophes, determinate semantic groups, the subject, neologisms, verbs, reflexive anomalies, complementarity, versification; paradigms, pronouns, grammar: all in the trash! No more images induced with elements alien to their own nature; enough of metaphors, the indecisive second term of trivial identifications; enough of the elegiac excrement of a man with the face of a duck.

The New Poetry II (1970)

Photo by Paola Scagliotti, courtesy of Clemente Padín.

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do;
but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Matthew 23:3

The Language of Action

Translated by Zane Koss

The work depends on the act of the creator-consumer. The work exists as long as it is created-consumed. Once created and consumed, it disappears. The work is the act.

Languages employ signs to substitute objects from the external world to express and communicate messages. One no longer shows a tree, one says “that tree.” The representation of the tree by means of a sign that acoustically sounds thus, and that by social convention designates an object with certain characteristics that differentiate it from other objects that in turn count on other signs being designated, was a factor of progress in favoring the relations of production.