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Out of the Labyrinth: Selected Poems
Spanning Charles Henri Ford's long and remarkable career, the present volume includes a generous selection of poems gathered from his many groundbreaking books. Ford has been in the advance guard from his precocious beginnings in the Deep South through his experiments in lyrical surrealism in the 1940s up to his recent poetic epiphanies of Nepal. The poet William Carlos Williams once wrote that the effect of Ford's "particularly hard, generally dreamlike poetry. . .is to revive the sense and force them to re-see, re-hear, re-taste, re-smell, and generally re-value all that it was believed had been seen, heard, smelled, and generally valued."
- GenresPoetry
144 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1991
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About the author
Charles Henri Ford
33 books20 followersCharles Henri Ford was an American poet, novelist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist best known for his editorship of the Surrealist magazine View (1940-1947) in New York City, and as the partner of the artist Pavel Tchelitchew. His very informative obituary of record is here.
"The simplest summation of Mr. Ford's life and work may be that he did exactly what he wanted, and seemingly knew everyone."
"The simplest summation of Mr. Ford's life and work may be that he did exactly what he wanted, and seemingly knew everyone."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 26, 2015
Charles Henri Ford is a too often neglected surrealist poet. Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi,[citation needed] he dropped out of high school and by age 16 he had started his first magazine, Blues(subtitled "A Bisexual Bimonthly"). Actress Ruth Ford (1911–2009) was his sister and only known sibling.
Not long after, he became part of Gertrude Stein's salon in Paris, where he met Natalie Barney, Man Ray, Kay Boyle, Janet Flanner, Peggy Guggenheim, Djuna Barnes (with whom he had an affair and travelled to Tangiers) and others of the American expatriate community in Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Près. He went to Morocco in 1932 at the suggestion of Paul Bowles, and there he typed Barnes' just-completed novel, Nightwood (1936), for her.
With Parker Tyler, who would later become a highly respected film critic, he co-authored The Young and Evil (1933), an energetically experimental novel with obvious debts to fellow writer Djuna Barnes, and also to Gertrude Stein, who called it "the novel that beat the Beat Generation by a generation". The novel portrays a collection of young genderqueer artists as they write poems, have sex, move in and out of cheap rented rooms, and duck into the neighborhood's many speakeasies. The characters' gender and sexual identities are presented candidly; it was this candor which was reportedly the reason for its rejection by several American and British publishers. It was finally picked up by Obelisk Press in Paris.
Ford returned to New York City in 1934 and brought Pavel Tchelitchew (Ford's life partner until the latter's death in 1957) with him. Ford's circle at the time included Carl Van Vechten, Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes, Lincoln Kirstein, Orson Welles, George Balanchine, and E. E. Cummings. Visiting friends from abroad included Cecil Beaton, Leonor Fini, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Salvador Dalí. Ford was photographed by Beaton in a costume designed by Dalí for Vogue in 1937.
He published his first full-length book of poems, The Garden of Disorder in 1938. William Carlos Williams wrote the introduction.[2] When Ford discussed the concept of poetry, he highlighted its relationship with other forms of art, mentioning Jean Cocteau, who wrote the foreword to one of Ford's catalogs of paintings and drawings. Ford said, "Everything is related to the concept of poetry. As you know, Jean Cocteau used to talk about the poetry of the novel, the poetry of the essay, the poetry of the theater—everything he did, he said, was poetry. Well, he was one of my gurus." In 1940, Ford and Tyler collaborated again on the magazine View, which was mainly concerned with avant-garde and surrealist art. It was published quarterly, as finances permitted, until 1947. It attracted contributions from such artists as Tchelitchew, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, André Masson, Pablo Picasso, Henry Miller, Paul Klee, Albert Camus, Lawrence Durrell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray, Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Jean Genet, René Magritte, Jean Dubuffet, and Edouard Roditi.
Ford was far more than a high named associate, however; his poems cut to the heart of surrealism, even if he could have used an editor.
PLAINT
Before a mob of 10,000 at Owensboro, KY
I, Rainey Betha, 22
from the top-branch of race -hatred look at you.
My limbs are bound, though boundless the bright sun
like my bright blood which had to run
into the orchard that excluded me:
now I climb death's tree.
The pruning hooks of many mouths
cut the black-leaved boughs.
The robins of my eyes hover where
sixteen leaves fall that were a prayer:
sixteen mouths are open wide;
the minutes like black cherries
drop from my shady side.
Oh, who is the forester must tend such a tree, Lord?
Do angels pick the cherry-blood of folk like me, Lord?
ST-JOHN PERSE
Holding habit shaped memories in a leopard-skin apron
The bone of your left ear vibrating to stars of deep seas
St-John Perse prisoner on a lost planet
You dreamed of other existences
Had it been the wandering spirit of a jungle fighter
Who entrusted you with theignitionkey to the wheel of truth
You may have discarded the ten causes of regret
But you were a sky-goer
Andpaid homage toa dragoned-headed moon
Installed on the lion-throne
At the cremation grounds where, cotton-clad, we attended your last rites
Gods of the world of formlessness
Where there to participate in the mystic drama
In your ashes I sensed no cessation of thought
Your meanings, apparitional and boundless, added up to the sacred
number 7
Not long after, he became part of Gertrude Stein's salon in Paris, where he met Natalie Barney, Man Ray, Kay Boyle, Janet Flanner, Peggy Guggenheim, Djuna Barnes (with whom he had an affair and travelled to Tangiers) and others of the American expatriate community in Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Près. He went to Morocco in 1932 at the suggestion of Paul Bowles, and there he typed Barnes' just-completed novel, Nightwood (1936), for her.
With Parker Tyler, who would later become a highly respected film critic, he co-authored The Young and Evil (1933), an energetically experimental novel with obvious debts to fellow writer Djuna Barnes, and also to Gertrude Stein, who called it "the novel that beat the Beat Generation by a generation". The novel portrays a collection of young genderqueer artists as they write poems, have sex, move in and out of cheap rented rooms, and duck into the neighborhood's many speakeasies. The characters' gender and sexual identities are presented candidly; it was this candor which was reportedly the reason for its rejection by several American and British publishers. It was finally picked up by Obelisk Press in Paris.
Ford returned to New York City in 1934 and brought Pavel Tchelitchew (Ford's life partner until the latter's death in 1957) with him. Ford's circle at the time included Carl Van Vechten, Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes, Lincoln Kirstein, Orson Welles, George Balanchine, and E. E. Cummings. Visiting friends from abroad included Cecil Beaton, Leonor Fini, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Salvador Dalí. Ford was photographed by Beaton in a costume designed by Dalí for Vogue in 1937.
He published his first full-length book of poems, The Garden of Disorder in 1938. William Carlos Williams wrote the introduction.[2] When Ford discussed the concept of poetry, he highlighted its relationship with other forms of art, mentioning Jean Cocteau, who wrote the foreword to one of Ford's catalogs of paintings and drawings. Ford said, "Everything is related to the concept of poetry. As you know, Jean Cocteau used to talk about the poetry of the novel, the poetry of the essay, the poetry of the theater—everything he did, he said, was poetry. Well, he was one of my gurus." In 1940, Ford and Tyler collaborated again on the magazine View, which was mainly concerned with avant-garde and surrealist art. It was published quarterly, as finances permitted, until 1947. It attracted contributions from such artists as Tchelitchew, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, André Masson, Pablo Picasso, Henry Miller, Paul Klee, Albert Camus, Lawrence Durrell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray, Jorge Luis Borges, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Jean Genet, René Magritte, Jean Dubuffet, and Edouard Roditi.
Ford was far more than a high named associate, however; his poems cut to the heart of surrealism, even if he could have used an editor.
PLAINT
Before a mob of 10,000 at Owensboro, KY
I, Rainey Betha, 22
from the top-branch of race -hatred look at you.
My limbs are bound, though boundless the bright sun
like my bright blood which had to run
into the orchard that excluded me:
now I climb death's tree.
The pruning hooks of many mouths
cut the black-leaved boughs.
The robins of my eyes hover where
sixteen leaves fall that were a prayer:
sixteen mouths are open wide;
the minutes like black cherries
drop from my shady side.
Oh, who is the forester must tend such a tree, Lord?
Do angels pick the cherry-blood of folk like me, Lord?
ST-JOHN PERSE
Holding habit shaped memories in a leopard-skin apron
The bone of your left ear vibrating to stars of deep seas
St-John Perse prisoner on a lost planet
You dreamed of other existences
Had it been the wandering spirit of a jungle fighter
Who entrusted you with theignitionkey to the wheel of truth
You may have discarded the ten causes of regret
But you were a sky-goer
Andpaid homage toa dragoned-headed moon
Installed on the lion-throne
At the cremation grounds where, cotton-clad, we attended your last rites
Gods of the world of formlessness
Where there to participate in the mystic drama
In your ashes I sensed no cessation of thought
Your meanings, apparitional and boundless, added up to the sacred
number 7
December 17, 2015
As I continue to build my City Lights Publishing shelf. I come across "Charles Henri Ford." Now I need to read more of his work. Dada style and strange Ford writes a powerful collection. My overall favorites listed below.
-To Christopher Marlowe
-Seis Hermanos
-An Afternoon with Andre Breton
-Matin Pour Matta
-ABC's
-The Impossibility of Dying In Your Arms....
-Chanson Pour Billie
-Candy Darling
-To Christopher Marlowe
-Seis Hermanos
-An Afternoon with Andre Breton
-Matin Pour Matta
-ABC's
-The Impossibility of Dying In Your Arms....
-Chanson Pour Billie
-Candy Darling
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews