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Pear Slip
Take a pear. Any pear. Divide it into sensuous surface and the idea of sensuous surface. Mix with one part philosophy and two parts jeu d'esprit. Pass the whole through a filter of buoyant affection for Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pissarro, and their everyday proliferation on posterboard and computer screen, and this is what you a fertile concoction of urban velocity posing as still life. Pear Slip is that wonderful a sustained and disciplined act of fancy.
- GenresPoetry
20 pages, Chapbook
First published December 13, 2007
38 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Hittinger
17 books55 followersMatthew Hittinger is the author of The Masque of Marilyn (GOSS183, 2017), The Erotic Postulate (2014) and Skin Shift (2012) both from Sibling Rivalry Press, and the chapbooks Thought * Frost * Voodoo (Harbor Editions, 2024), Platos de Sal (Seven Kitchens Press, 2009), Narcissus Resists (GOSS183, 2009), and Pear Slip (Spire Press, 2007) winner of the Spire Press 2006 Chapbook Award. Named a Debut Poet by Poets & Writers Magazine, his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, and has been featured on Verse Daily, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, and the Library of Congress’s The Poet and The Poem.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 28, 2008
Matthew has a striking gift for exacting, brilliant description. This book is the best of a still-life, life rendered on paper, but it's also more. Matthew shares his view, and I see better.
December 9, 2008
poetry is not usually "my thing" so to speak. i find myself becoming uncomfortable at times, in the places where it becomes very personal or sentimental, and this is probably in part due to the fact that i consider myself to be a largely visual person. being drawn to books about theory and evolution probably nudges me even a little more in the direction of "not-poetry." however, this was a different experience entirely.
the preface dealt with thinking about writing poetry about pears, and certain sentences struck me as joyful and enjoyable ("For one can never have just one; their necks rest best in unison") and i read them until i memorized them.
as i read on, my attention drifted from page to image, and i delighted in the fact that i felt at ease with going from one to the other without guilt.
i came up with a few illustration ideas.
and doll ideas.
my favorite piece was "A Side of a Fruit Box Crate," which described in detail the weathered label on a crate of fruit, where words are chopped and meaning changes for an illustration.
anyway, it would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes poetry, or pears, or who would like to get into poetry without feeling obligated to read hundreds of pages of it.
:)
the preface dealt with thinking about writing poetry about pears, and certain sentences struck me as joyful and enjoyable ("For one can never have just one; their necks rest best in unison") and i read them until i memorized them.
as i read on, my attention drifted from page to image, and i delighted in the fact that i felt at ease with going from one to the other without guilt.
i came up with a few illustration ideas.
and doll ideas.
my favorite piece was "A Side of a Fruit Box Crate," which described in detail the weathered label on a crate of fruit, where words are chopped and meaning changes for an illustration.
anyway, it would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes poetry, or pears, or who would like to get into poetry without feeling obligated to read hundreds of pages of it.
:)
June 17, 2009
"This Is Not About Pears" was featured on Verse Daily June 17, 2009.
A review from Therese Broderick who maintains the blog Ekphrasis: Writing About Art:
When you see the phrase “still life,” what comes to your mind? Now that I’ve read the very engaging and inventive poems in Matthew Hittinger’s chapbook Pear Slip, I think primarily of pears. This award-winning chapbook (Spire Press, 2007) compiles eight poems, plus a preface entitled “Pear Poetics,” which consider pears from several angles: as a subject of art (oil painting, drawing, watercolor); as a canned or crated commodity; as the often-neglected cousin of the apple; and as an embodiment of the shapely forms of his own poems as they peel down a page. His individual poems are linked not only thematically, but also linguistically. Mr. Hittinger plays with the various homophones and translations of the noun “pear”: to “pare” a piece of fruit; pome (French or Latin for the pear-like “apple” and also a homophone for “poem”); and a “pair” of lovers.
Some aspects of the poet’s ekphrasis are unique; at least, I’ve seen them in no other ekphrastic poem. First, one of his poems responds to the digital wallpaper on a laptop display, an image which he describes as “a stolen painting by Braque.” Secondly, another of his poems responds to the “Untitled” assignation of a painting in a museum.
The blurb on the back cover praises the chapbook as “a fertile concoction. . .wonderful. . .a sustained and disciplined act of fancy” (Linda Gregerson). I agree entirely.
The works of art which inspired the poems in this collection are:
BRAQUE, Georges. Fruit Dish (oil painting)
CEZANNE, Paul. Trois Poires (watercolor and pencil work); and Pots of Flowers and Pears (oil painting)
PISSARRO, Camille. Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket (oil painting)
VAN GOGH, Vincent. Still Life with Grapes, Pears and Lemons; and Still Life with Grapes, Apples, Pear and Lemons; and Still Life with Pears (all oil paintings)
A review from Therese Broderick who maintains the blog Ekphrasis: Writing About Art:
When you see the phrase “still life,” what comes to your mind? Now that I’ve read the very engaging and inventive poems in Matthew Hittinger’s chapbook Pear Slip, I think primarily of pears. This award-winning chapbook (Spire Press, 2007) compiles eight poems, plus a preface entitled “Pear Poetics,” which consider pears from several angles: as a subject of art (oil painting, drawing, watercolor); as a canned or crated commodity; as the often-neglected cousin of the apple; and as an embodiment of the shapely forms of his own poems as they peel down a page. His individual poems are linked not only thematically, but also linguistically. Mr. Hittinger plays with the various homophones and translations of the noun “pear”: to “pare” a piece of fruit; pome (French or Latin for the pear-like “apple” and also a homophone for “poem”); and a “pair” of lovers.
Some aspects of the poet’s ekphrasis are unique; at least, I’ve seen them in no other ekphrastic poem. First, one of his poems responds to the digital wallpaper on a laptop display, an image which he describes as “a stolen painting by Braque.” Secondly, another of his poems responds to the “Untitled” assignation of a painting in a museum.
The blurb on the back cover praises the chapbook as “a fertile concoction. . .wonderful. . .a sustained and disciplined act of fancy” (Linda Gregerson). I agree entirely.
The works of art which inspired the poems in this collection are:
BRAQUE, Georges. Fruit Dish (oil painting)
CEZANNE, Paul. Trois Poires (watercolor and pencil work); and Pots of Flowers and Pears (oil painting)
PISSARRO, Camille. Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket (oil painting)
VAN GOGH, Vincent. Still Life with Grapes, Pears and Lemons; and Still Life with Grapes, Apples, Pear and Lemons; and Still Life with Pears (all oil paintings)
December 31, 2008
Pear Slip is a wonderful word-scape! So beautiful and innovative, as in How to Write, How to not Write about Pears:
-So I wrote a poem about this, called it ‘Genesis’ left Milton’s
Serpent but changed his apple to a pear (pears are juicier) ate,
Exposed wet teeth marks like Adam’s next to my wide bite.-
"Pared, Canned" reminds me of "The Mouse's Tale" from Alice in Wonderland. Matthew Hittinger, along with Randall Mann, Andrew Demcak, and Charles Jensen, are all poets to watch. These are the artists who are redefining literature. I recommend reading this book to everyone.
-So I wrote a poem about this, called it ‘Genesis’ left Milton’s
Serpent but changed his apple to a pear (pears are juicier) ate,
Exposed wet teeth marks like Adam’s next to my wide bite.-
"Pared, Canned" reminds me of "The Mouse's Tale" from Alice in Wonderland. Matthew Hittinger, along with Randall Mann, Andrew Demcak, and Charles Jensen, are all poets to watch. These are the artists who are redefining literature. I recommend reading this book to everyone.
January 31, 2009
Eloquent, Sensuous Perseverations on the Pear
Matthew Hittinger is an artist. He is able to paint with words intimate still lifes focused on one object - a pear - and make each of the eight poems in this small but treasureable book an experience the reader will use as a pause to enjoy, yes, but to also become more acutely attuned to the simple things in our lives that deserve our attention.
Hittinger introduces his observations and responses to the pear in a set of four brief statements 'Preface: Pear Poetics' in which he grapples with the individuality of the pear as a shape mistaken for an apple, reminding us of the antiquity of the fruit as 'a hollow teardrop in Eve's neck, a hardened lump in Adam's throat', and pays homage to the pear's unique defining shape 'Do not come to pears with a preconceived idea of what form is. They will elude you; Let the pears realize their form to you. Abandon will. Give in to the pears' way of seeing.' And with this introduction he continues on every page to address every aspect of the pear from scent to taste, to form in art, to variations in types ('Comice, Forelle, Anjou, Bosc, Seckel, Packham'), manner of packing in named crates, even making the shape of a pear out of words as in 'Silkscreen: Pome in a Bowl.'
At times playful, at times irreverent, and at other times reverential, Hittinger's writing style is visual and visceral, making the most of confining his attention to one loved inanimate object as in the following:
PEAR PALIMPSEST
'...peach, brown, cream
reflected beneath each pear in chunks
of red, vermilion, lemon: lights of a party-float,
bathers drying off. pears sloughing color
as light particles strike the atoms in the skin, surface
of object feathered. Squint your eyes
and a photograph takes form, what van Gogh saw
and repeated:....'
If Matthew Hittinger can create such extended beauty with one subject, he makes us hungry for more expanded topics. This is a small treasure of a book. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 09
Matthew Hittinger is an artist. He is able to paint with words intimate still lifes focused on one object - a pear - and make each of the eight poems in this small but treasureable book an experience the reader will use as a pause to enjoy, yes, but to also become more acutely attuned to the simple things in our lives that deserve our attention.
Hittinger introduces his observations and responses to the pear in a set of four brief statements 'Preface: Pear Poetics' in which he grapples with the individuality of the pear as a shape mistaken for an apple, reminding us of the antiquity of the fruit as 'a hollow teardrop in Eve's neck, a hardened lump in Adam's throat', and pays homage to the pear's unique defining shape 'Do not come to pears with a preconceived idea of what form is. They will elude you; Let the pears realize their form to you. Abandon will. Give in to the pears' way of seeing.' And with this introduction he continues on every page to address every aspect of the pear from scent to taste, to form in art, to variations in types ('Comice, Forelle, Anjou, Bosc, Seckel, Packham'), manner of packing in named crates, even making the shape of a pear out of words as in 'Silkscreen: Pome in a Bowl.'
At times playful, at times irreverent, and at other times reverential, Hittinger's writing style is visual and visceral, making the most of confining his attention to one loved inanimate object as in the following:
PEAR PALIMPSEST
'...peach, brown, cream
reflected beneath each pear in chunks
of red, vermilion, lemon: lights of a party-float,
bathers drying off. pears sloughing color
as light particles strike the atoms in the skin, surface
of object feathered. Squint your eyes
and a photograph takes form, what van Gogh saw
and repeated:....'
If Matthew Hittinger can create such extended beauty with one subject, he makes us hungry for more expanded topics. This is a small treasure of a book. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 09
July 14, 2009
Oh, this slim volume is a giant 5-star! "Greet each {poem}, hear each, slip inside the frame" (8). Find yourself inside this fine art gallery of poems and enrich your day with sweetness, texture and tenderness.
"Forget the single apple," Hittinger states. "Send me sequences of pears" (8).
And let them get historic: "Gauguin and Pissarro each give a wink // through those cross-hatched brushstrokes" (18). And let them get kinky: "banana dreams of pear, pear dreams / of pear, the erect stems" (23). And by all means let them get honest: "Unpaired this pear reminds me of first love how he fed supple / Meat let juice run down chin onto chest" (9).
I went grocery shopping last night and there they were. Matt Hittinger's pears. Their soft colors and goofy shapes. Their bruises. Their subtle scents getting overpowered by the season's peaches. And I'll admit it, his book's power: he made me take notice. Wonder about their travels from their trees. Even who touched them. Of just a little thing. "Which says what, really?" (19).
"Forget the single apple," Hittinger states. "Send me sequences of pears" (8).
And let them get historic: "Gauguin and Pissarro each give a wink // through those cross-hatched brushstrokes" (18). And let them get kinky: "banana dreams of pear, pear dreams / of pear, the erect stems" (23). And by all means let them get honest: "Unpaired this pear reminds me of first love how he fed supple / Meat let juice run down chin onto chest" (9).
I went grocery shopping last night and there they were. Matt Hittinger's pears. Their soft colors and goofy shapes. Their bruises. Their subtle scents getting overpowered by the season's peaches. And I'll admit it, his book's power: he made me take notice. Wonder about their travels from their trees. Even who touched them. Of just a little thing. "Which says what, really?" (19).
August 21, 2020
This difficult to find chapbook, which I sought for years on the council of a trusted friend, did not disappoint. I'm too far removed from academics to offer an intellectually overladen review, historical context, or literary bin into which this slender volume can be dumped. But there is this: each poem here suggests a physical work of art--a painting, I think, more than a photograph, sifted through the artist and present in filtered form. I select poetry to read because something interesting about it speaks to me--often a thing as banal as the chosen title, or the cover illustration. I stick with a book of poetry--sometimes for a year or longer--because it is enjoyable. The title of this book refers to the shape and form of a peach, but reading it is akin to biting into that one rare fruit which transcends delight and reaches towards tender, juicy joy. Savor it. I do.
June 18, 2010
I can see where other people would like this chapbook. The poems are smartly crafted. I'm just not a fan. I don't have any emotional connection to the poems. Maybe I'm prejudice against pears? I'm not sure.
October 18, 2009
Hear Matthew read Pear Slip on the Joe Milford Poetry Show.
May 20, 2010
Technically superb poetry that failed to really hit me emotionally or intellectually.
Honestly, the writing was really good. Just not my "thing," so to speak.
Honestly, the writing was really good. Just not my "thing," so to speak.
June 2, 2009
apples are not the only forbidden fruit... pears have affinity shaped aspirations....
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews