Here, for anyone interested, is a poem I wrote in what I think of as
versicles. I tend to use them ironically (_pace_ David B), and it is an
enjoyable form to work in.
Best wishes
Matthew
http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk/museum.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 21 May 2001 18:03
Subject: versículos
Here's José Kozer's nswer to my question about versículos in his own work.
I've added information and translations in brackets.
>Mark, querido:
>
>The issue of the versículo in my work deals with something of a theoretical
>nature and I am not qualified to answer it (not that I dont handle theory
but
>when it comes to my own work I cannot handle theory, no me pertenece
hacerlo, [it's not my business to do it] let us say). However, and I do
take the issue seriously (scherzi are serious) all I can say are two
things: a) the Bible, which is poetical prose among
>other things. Those long verses of mine, one of several structures I have
>used, perhaps began reading the Bible, which is poetical prose when it does
>prose and poetry when it does poetry (Psalms, for instance). Now, I do not
do
>prose, so that I do not do poetical prose, I do poetry, so that those
>versicles are poetry and cannot be, logically, poetical prose, since I do
not
>do prose. When I do prose (for instance, Mezcla para dos tiempos, Aldus,
>México, the only book in prose I have ever published: incurrí en la prosa
[I trespassed into prose]) one sees immediately that my prose is tinged by
a poetical aura, but it is
>prose, not pequeños poemas en prosa a la Baudelaire, let's say. And b) I am
>not aware that I do versicles, Sefamí [critic Jacobo Sefamí, chair of
Spanish and Portuguese at Irvine] analogyzed some of my work, through
>yiddishkeit, to the versicle issue, so it now begins to haunt me, when for
>truths' sake it should hunt him. I do poems and sometimes, or many times,
as
>I begin to write, a line begins to take over and wants to move endlessly
>towards no end, nowhere, almost as I suppose gertrude stein ("Toasted Susie
>is my favorite ice cream") would. And as the line stops (it's got to stop
>somewhere since we are not eternal) it looks like a versicle, it ain't. It
is
>a sierpe, a víbora, a boa, a culebra, a meandro, an estero, [ a snake, a
viper, a boa, a snake, meander, an estuary] a dictionary
>(incomplete): not a versicle. Perhaps a popsicle. I love you, josé.
>
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