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Theory of Tables
A 1992 book of poetry by Hocquard.
- GenresPoetry
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Emmanuel Hocquard
46 books14 followersEmmanuel Hocquard (born in 1940 in Cannes) was a French poet who grew up in Tangier, Morocco. He served as the editor of the small press Orange Export Ltd., and, with Claude Royet-Journoud, edited two anthologies of new American poets, 21+1: Poètes américains ď aujourďhui (with a corresponding English volume, 21+1 American Poets Today) and 49+1. In 1989, Hocquard founded and directed "Un bureau sur l'Atlantique", an association fostering relations between French and American poets.
Besides poetry, he has written essays, a novel, and translated American and Portuguese poets including Charles Reznikoff, Michael Palmer, Paul Auster, Benjamin Hollander, Antonio Cisneros, and Fernando Pessoa. With the artist Alexandre Delay, he made a video film, Le Voyage à Reykjavik.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel...)
Besides poetry, he has written essays, a novel, and translated American and Portuguese poets including Charles Reznikoff, Michael Palmer, Paul Auster, Benjamin Hollander, Antonio Cisneros, and Fernando Pessoa. With the artist Alexandre Delay, he made a video film, Le Voyage à Reykjavik.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel...)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 22, 2009
Just came across this in a used bookstore and hope the person who gave it up died because I can't imagine giving it the fuck up!
After buying it for 2 dollars (HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?) I went to a poetry reading, but was an hour early by mistake, sat in the park, started reading it and could NOT put it down. Here's a sample poem:
A sun falls on a table
reflects bricks and foliage
on the windows opposite
Dear Dan, you say this terrace
is a floated garden
A chair is white
a table becomes covered with ash
a horse flies from right to left
Its sky is square
Dear Iconoclast, Dear April
a letter travels
a letter doesn't arrive
In dreams images take revenge
which gestures accompany what you don't say?
What happened
happened far away
did not
The third begins with this ending
After buying it for 2 dollars (HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?) I went to a poetry reading, but was an hour early by mistake, sat in the park, started reading it and could NOT put it down. Here's a sample poem:
A sun falls on a table
reflects bricks and foliage
on the windows opposite
Dear Dan, you say this terrace
is a floated garden
A chair is white
a table becomes covered with ash
a horse flies from right to left
Its sky is square
Dear Iconoclast, Dear April
a letter travels
a letter doesn't arrive
In dreams images take revenge
which gestures accompany what you don't say?
What happened
happened far away
did not
The third begins with this ending
September 8, 2007
This book changed me.
I had been reading some Michael Palmer and cautiously liking it, and Palmer translated this, and o-blek made a very nice book-object of it. Brian Schorn set and designed the book, and his aesthetic really appeals to be (Schorn's own book or poems on Burning Deck is good too).
I remember standing in Bridge Street Books in DC, flipping through it to Hocquard's afterword. He describes his project for writing this book, which resonates with a writing project that I had underway at the time (which ended up being my forthcoming book "Irresponsibility").
Hocquard is a philosopher-poet and this book is a lyrical, phenomenological masterwork. It showed me how to apply the obsessive self-referential writing that I was stuck in.
This book was a way through for me.
I had been reading some Michael Palmer and cautiously liking it, and Palmer translated this, and o-blek made a very nice book-object of it. Brian Schorn set and designed the book, and his aesthetic really appeals to be (Schorn's own book or poems on Burning Deck is good too).
I remember standing in Bridge Street Books in DC, flipping through it to Hocquard's afterword. He describes his project for writing this book, which resonates with a writing project that I had underway at the time (which ended up being my forthcoming book "Irresponsibility").
Hocquard is a philosopher-poet and this book is a lyrical, phenomenological masterwork. It showed me how to apply the obsessive self-referential writing that I was stuck in.
This book was a way through for me.
August 7, 2007
I actually read this book a few years back & really liked it. But just recently on a backgammon jag, I found out that backgammon was originally called 'Tables" & so I'm revisiting & realizing that there is much backgammon reference in this poetry that I missed before.
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June 1, 2025Tit noget god punch over slutningerne på digtene men jeg får det også bare let lidt gåde-symbolsk hyggeligt over sådan nogle sætninger som "Don't sort out I and you / Don't sort out blue and Aegean Sea" (Som måske også - på sin måde - kan tale sammen med det der Mikas Lange billede?)
February 13, 2019
Waarom zou ik een review schrijven? Die ene vriendin die het Frans machtig is en poëzie leest, begrijpt wel dat ik dit prachtig vind, en voor zij die het niet machtig zijn kunnen er niks mee. Zij kunnen slechts aan uitgeverij Vleugels vragen of die de vertaling ter hand neemt.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews