per se

by P. Inman

Poetry. P. Inman radically fractures the conventions of language in order to build everything up again from a more elemental level. In PER SE, the composers Luigi Nono, Morton Feldman, Hans Lachenmann provide musical structure for his jazz-inflected words in motion. The book lives in the tension between the free, multidirectional movement of words and the highly orgazined macro-structures.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2012

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

"wepp / m' / dist.ope / vent." (p. 57). Dystopia? District? Distant? Open?

A book of moments of language in reduction, down to the word, to the phoneme, to the period and parenthesis. Surprising and challenging and frustrating and enlightening.

"Black snow from a pencil" (p. 83)

[Wesley Harden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just in our grasp,
Topological and temporal brilliance.

[Michael Steger · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most enjoyable collections I have read recently: lyrical, intelligent, playful, and serious. The central poems in this collection refer to three influential modern composers: Luigi Nono, Morton Feldman, and Helmut Lachemann. Fittingly (or perhaps inevitably), a distinct musicality pervades these poems. Here, for example, is the fourth of the "Six Feldman Accounts" (which Inman explains in an endnote were written with a procedure tied conceptually to Feldman's shimmering late work, "Coptic Light"):


4.

bleach
ink
epith




neap
raisin
tint tape church




strike
eschaton
book voft
catastrophe
money
speakie
metastructure



Two of my favorite poems in this collection are "Bec du hoc" and "Amagansett again." "Amagansett again" is called "again" because it is a reprise (with revisions) of Inman's earlier "Amagansett." Both "Amagansett" and "Amagansett again" are dedicated to the memory of Leslie Scalapino.

To read one version of Inman's "Amagansett," click here: http://actionyes.org/issue9/darragh_i...