Sunday, September 7, 2008

The fist is more romantic than the sword

Jenny Factor once did a reading at Amherst, which I remember best for the purported "canzone about fisting," which sounded bizarre and unsatisfactory. I came across the text today; the poem, it turns out, is less bizarre and more unsatisfactory -- quite awful, in fact -- than I remembered. The canzone is a sort of sestina on steroids; there are five endwords, and each stanza has a featured endword, which is repeated over and over and over. I am not aware of any canzones that are actually worth reading.

While on the topic -- not of canzones -- I would like to introduce you to Professor Manfred Pfister, Lowell's German translator and a distinguished scholar of Romance languages:


4 comments:

F.L/ D.L. said...

Come visit us for some links to contemporary poetry and other joys.

zbs said...

Not to be confused with the calzone, which has two ends, and features cheese and sometimes pepperonis.

Zed said...

And occasionally a severed human fist.

zbs said...

Rarely I imagine.