A Descriptive Method

by Claude Royet-Journoud

Poetry. Translated from the French by Keith Waldrop. A descriptive method from which all the conventional indicators have been withheld? Like a theory of colors in which no colors are shown? Yes--but then. But then, 'from the scriptive' arises a tale, a constellation of voices and silences as singular and engaging as any other in contemporary poetry. To read Claude Royet-Journoud is to experience the elements of the telling itself. Less, for once, is truly more.--Michael Palmer

Genres: Poetry

18 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Claude Royet-Journoud was born in 1941 in Lyon, France. His publications in French include, from Gallimard, Le Renversement, La Notion d'Obstacle, Les Objects contiennent l'infini, & Les Natures indivisibles (1972, 1978, 1983, 1997). He was also co-founder & co-editor, along with Anne-Marie Albiach & Michel Couturier, of the journal Siècle à mains. With Emmanuel Hocquard, he has edited two anthologies of American poetry, 21+1: Poètes améicains d'aujourd'hui, & 49+1: nouveaux poètes américains.

Publication in English include: The Crowded Circle (tr. Keith Waldrop; Le Collet de Buffle, Edinburgh, G.B., 1973), Reversal (tr. Keith Waldrop; Hellcoal Press / Brown University, Providence, 1973); Até (tr. Keith Waldrop; Blue Guitar Books (Plymouth) & Imprint Edition (Hong Kong), 1981); "The Maternal Drape" or the Resititution (tr. Charles Bernstein; Awede, 1985), The Notion of Obstacle (tr. Keith Waldrop; Awede, 1985), Objects Contain the Infinite (tr. Keith Waldrop; Awede, 1995), A Descriptive Method (tr. Keith Waldrop; The Post Apollo Press, 1995), i.e. (tr. Keith Waldrop; Burning Deck, Providence, 1995), The Right Wall of the Heart Effaced (tr. Keith Waldrop; Duration Press, 1999.

His work has also appeared in Acts, Conjunctions, Temblor, o-blek, New Directions, Moving Letters, Lingo, with interviews appearing in Lingo # 4, Towards a New Poetics (ed. Serge Gavronsky, University of California Press), & Code of Signals (ed. Michael Palmer, North Point Press).

His work been translated into Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Romanian.

He currently lives in Paris.