A rollicking fairy tale told with stringent poetic constraints! Here are the first six stanzas of thirty-three. BARON AARON The Baron Aaron, though of great nobility, Did not appear particularly noble. His face was red and round, his features mobile, His body squat and scot-free of agility. His intellect was frivolous and trivial; He wasn’t […]
Entries Tagged as '*Words'
Baron Aaron
August 19th, 2019 · 2 Comments
The Pope’s Mustard-Maker
August 11th, 2019 · 2 Comments
The Pope’s Mustard-Maker is now available from Black Scat Books! Translated by Doug Skinner! Le Moutardier du pape was the last work that Alfred Jarry finished, a few months before his death in 1907. It was one of many operettas he worked on in his last years, and one of the few he finished: a bawdy three-act […]
Epiphanies
July 22nd, 2019 · 6 Comments
People seem to like epiphanies. EPIPHANIES I walked out to the back acre Where the hawthorn climbed shyly over the sagging fence Like a little girl at a birthday party I looked off to the east At the darkening clouds And realized Why my mother was never home on Sunday I walked out into the […]
An Aria from “The Pope’s Mustard-Maker”
July 16th, 2019 · Comments Off on An Aria from “The Pope’s Mustard-Maker”
I’m currently translating Alfred Jarry’s operetta Le Moutardier du pape for Black Scat Books; it should be out later this year. I’m translating Jarry’s rhymed verse as rhymed verse; it always requires some compromise, but I hope the result is more faithful than a literal, unrhymed rendition would be (and more faithful than Jarry’s own […]
Anagram Rhymes
June 23rd, 2019 · 2 Comments
Here’s another new poetic constraint: the anagram rhyme. As the name says, anagrams are treated as rhymes. Here are seven examples: Whenever we go out, the post Beside the park is still the spot Where our retriever always opts To tug upon his leash and stop. The life of urban man is tame: He earns […]
Monosyllabic Haiku
June 2nd, 2019 · 2 Comments
Here’s another entry in my continuing search for new poetic constraints. Monosyllabic haiku contain three one-syllable words, with 5, 7, and 5 letters. And here are seven examples: moose springs forth tweak twelfth shelf cheap schlock sells bears scratch backs white wraiths whirl swill thrills swine frail scrolls crack
Upside-Down Stories
April 9th, 2019 · 4 Comments
Upside-Down Stories is now available from Black Scat Books! Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau were quintessential Bohemian poets of the 1880s. Cros also experimented with the phonograph and color photography; Goudeau founded the Hydropathes, who met to declaim poetry while not drinking water. Cros and Goudeau’s only collaboration was a series of five exuberant stories […]
The Muses Speak
March 10th, 2019 · 2 Comments
The Muses give me some poetic advice. THE MUSES SPEAK If you write about your feelings, We will throw potato peelings. If you start to air confessions, We’ll urge psychiatric sessions. If your work becomes too earnest, We’ll suggest that it be furnaced. If your work becomes too solemn, We will turn our spinal column. […]
The Fetuses
February 17th, 2019 · 2 Comments
The idiosyncratic poet and cabaret performer Maurice Mac-Nab had a short but appreciated career in Paris in the 1880s. He was known for his deadpan delivery and limited vocal range; it was said of him that he could sing only three notes, but each was flawless. My translation of his poem “The Fetuses” is a […]
The Best of Le Scat Noir
February 10th, 2019 · Comments Off on The Best of Le Scat Noir
The Best of Le Scat Noir is now available! It collects memorable gems from the online journal edited by the ebullient Norman Conquest, in a large, full-color trade paperback. I have a number of pieces in it, as do many others, to wit: Paulo Brito, Paul Kavanagh, Erik Satie, Samuele Bastianello, Alice Pulaski, Pink Buddha, Yuriy […]