Dominique Hecq



Long Poem Translation of Marilyne Bertoncini

Sand for my mother   be aware that comings and goings are like dreams, like reflections of the moon on water. –Yogi Milarépa I can’t remember the future, She says The sea is breathing is slow fickle expires and licks …

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Translated Extracts from Chantal Danjou

Rehabilitation of the Inferno If Yellow (Extracts) an odour of cut grass she who walks falters land of deceiving linearity like creases in a pillow black and white slumber one foot in a dream the other harried bust opening its …

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Daniela Brozek Cordier Reviews Dominique Hecq

To some readers, like me, Dominique Hecq’s Hush: A Fugue may be daunting at first appearance. This starts with the cover, which has the sort of self-assured, intellectual air I find a little intimidating. A wary look inside reveals unstable text formatting – blocks of dense prose broken by verse, haiku, couplets, one-liners.

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Dominique Hecq Reviews Melinda Smith and Caren Florance

Seeking to cast light on Melinda Smith’s Goodbye, Cruel alongside her collabo-rative work with Caren Florance titled Members Only is like approaching a hive of fully-formed poems.

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Review Short: Tusiata Avia’s The New Adventures of Nafanua, Samoan Goddess of War

Samoan-New Zealand poet and performer Tusiata Avia explores the intricate fate history and myth have sent her way in The New Adventures of Nafanua, Samoan Goddess of War. This slim volume is divided into two parts: the Nafanua poems, followed by lyrics gathered under the subtitle ‘How I Came into this World’.

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Review Short: Les Wicks’s Getting By Not Fitting In

Is Les Wicks afraid of love? Yes, Les Wicks is afraid of love. I start this review with a swift homage to Charles Simic (1975) because of the feelings, affects and question marks I was left with after first reading Les Wicks’s Getting By Not Fitting In (2016).

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Dominique Hecq Reviews Charles Baudelaire: Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal

Les Murray endorses Jan Owen’s translation of Charles Baudelaire’s Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) on the book’s back cover: ‘Jan Owen’s Baudelaire brings the French conjuror closer to me than any version I’d ever read.’ Although we could take umbrage to the term ‘conjuror’ being used in relation to Baudelaire, it is, on closer reflection, quite apposite. In fact it may apply to the French poet as well as his Australian translator, for both are magicians in their own way. Given Baudelaire’s impact on Anglophone poetry, poetics, and criticism, he needs no introduction to many readers of Cordite Poetry Review.

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Dominique Hecq Reviews Julie Chevalier and Cath Kenneally

Often, we are immersed in our world as in body-temperature water, treading along effortlessly, unaware of distinction between self and medium. We have to thank poets for splashing water in our faces, for reminding us of the distinction. The splash may also refresh – perhaps move us to stop treading and begin noticing the bubbly and at times murky stream of language in which we are immersed. I thank both Julie Chevalier and Cath Kenneally for their vigorous splash. Take a big breath. We are under water, where strange things happen.

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Scribbledehobble

Language is a parasite — LACAN All languages are equal                                                                                        (the spoken word comes first, writing second) Language is messy: the lexicon is messy                                                                           (Chomsky would have said as much) Dictionaries are cumbersome to consult                                                                                                           (never up-to-date) Bilingual dictionaries are elliptic                                                                                                                (traduttore, traditore!) Machine-readable …

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