the world over, [Adonis,] the now-81-year-old poet, critic and scholar attended a lovely ceremony in Frankfurt honouring his staggering achievements on Sunday afternoon which specifically designated his contribution to furthering the ideals and attitudes of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (on his birthdate, Aug. 28). Although primarily a literary accolade, it often looks further afield to identify those such as Sigmund Freud (1930) and Max Planck (1945) who also planted the seeds of a consummately literate and civilised garden of earthly delights:
"Like plants in glass gardens.
Wretched invisible creatures penetrate
the texture of space like dust--spiral victims."
--"A Grave for New York" (A Time Between Ashes and Roses; 1971)
from
Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Adonis ascending~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's my allergies, Judith. Go to Shoppers' and get me some Gravol, 222s and Contac-C, please. That's all I need."
I went. I bought. I delivered [to Gwendolyn MacEwen]. She promised to pay me later. She ripped open the packs and gulped them down in the order she requested them. She was always meticulous in the little things. I was always meticulous in noticing them. I loved her. I only knew her the last decade of her life but I loved her. I loved the woman who wrote the kind of poetry I believed equalled Leonard Cohen's (and, as regulars who read In Other Words know, I make no bones about my unrivalled awe and reverence for our numero-uno poetuno, our brilliant contemporary Shakespeare).
from
Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Remembering Gwen~~~~~~~~~~~
her devotion to certain practices of representation. Despite the book's concisely minimal visual form, That This is not a work of ekphrasis or animation. Instead, the mourner carries the absent loved one within as conscience, beyond the need for manifested presence. Mourning is given form, and eventually closure, as words and phrases, fragmented and deliquescent, gradually echo and respond to one another, their slow cohesion an antidote to death's apparent suddenness.
