“Documentary elegy”, “infralyric”…between dreams and concepts, Muriel Pic pursues her poetic quest within archives of all kinds. This time, three islands are in sight, Okinawa and its World War II suicide bombers, Japan; «Orplid», “name of a utopia”, and its naturists of the 20s and 30s, in Germany; Patmos and its hermits from the second half of the 20th century. To better dream, she chose three “guides”, the Japanese author of ancient times Sei Shonagon, famous for her bedside notes, the German poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, a contemporary of the Grimm brothers, and the American poet Robert Lax, retired to the Greek island from the 1960s. Follower of surreal chance, Muriel Pic sinks further into this adventure than is the search for traces of the past through documents. Like WG Sebald on whom she wrote an essay published in 2009, she peppers her texts with photographic vignettes.
She writes in the prelude: “I started from experiences that disoriented me, disturbed me: the speed of a memorial near a cliff in Japan, a few hours on a naturist beach in Berlin, a crossing between Patmos and Lesbos, the sacred island of l’Apocalypse and the island of Moira’s camp”. “I exposed myself to the history of the places visited, imagined, remembered”, she said again. The result is a slightly disturbing free verse book populated by ghosts. furry picnic «Orplid» : a man smiles, looks out of frame. The surface of the photo is slightly weathered, his skin looks burnt. Who are he, his companions and companions? What have they become ? The Dream Argument, whether in front of this fading joy or in front of a snapshot representing refugee shelters in Okinawa, keeps us in balance between reality, dream, the suspicion of fiction.
poetry market
After two years thwarted by a certain virus, the most important event devoted to poetry in France is back at Place Saint-Sulpice on Wednesday June 8 in Paris, until Saturday. More than 500 publishers will be present. Readings and activities will take place around a guest country, this year Luxembourg, and an honorary president, Nancy Houston.
The extract
Sei Shonagon wakes up
Sei Shonagon dreamed of an island
of The Fisherwoman of New Haven
octopuses from Hokusai
and female snorkelers
She takes back
ses bedside notes :
listing is an act without emotion?
On the contrary, it’s a held breath
around the ordinary
hollow in a pillow
May the destiny of books be to support
heads
between sleep and dream
the day and the night
body and soul
the false and the true
what opposes and does not oppose
here is the concrete image of literature
what gives in the year one thousand
thing after thing
Sei Shonagon
whose nickname we only know
between Mount Kurama and the Kamo River.
I appreciate little and I find it uninteresting
women who lead an honest life
are satisfied with superficial marital happiness
and expect no joy from the future.
Nothing is known about how Sei Shonagon
ended his life
but he is credited with a misery commensurate with his harshness
commensurate with the wickedness of his gifts
towards everything that alienates us
forces us
and would like to prevent us
in the year one thousand like now
to repeat freedom.