Spotlight series #83 : Jérôme Melançon
Curated by Canadian writer, editor and publisher rob mclennan, the “spotlight” series appears the first Monday of every month.
STATEMENT
Perception is not limited to the senses, or to sense. Why then make it solely a matter of attention, of focus? Why limit myself to expression? Why stop at the language I have, at the languages I have? Why not then recreate perception, catch what was left outside, create new opportunities for perception, beginning with this attunement to adversity and resistance? In such poems, the self might free itself of its boundaries, find ceaseless beginnings outside itself, within others, matters in matter; find its presence in everything that is new and surprising; discover its own marks in rhythms that lend themselves to expectation.
Perhaps I’ve read too much phenomenology. Perhaps I abandon myself too often to a desire for another kind of world. Is poetry then not an illusion and the creation of what lies at the heart of the illusion? I’d rather prepare another world than let myself sink into this one.
TWO POEMS
Lines without Trajectories
the pain dashes — short dashes, sudden, nervous –
dashes through the land
inhabiting each muscle, finding
the next, relying
on compensation
for its transfer, its
elongation;
it tunnels
the earth moves, makes itself undulation
to accommodate
as
the pain dashes
the determination of gophers
a head grates against hastily
placed ceilings, dirt
raining in burrows, dirt
pulling roots and
leaves
spreading
an undulation
hawkish wings with shadows
the size of the last flood
there
might
be another way back, out,
this land bearing marks,
presence
wilts
dashes
swells
Some Sort of Occupation
I’m trying out places to hang up doors
might just sleep on one to test its pliability
first
I raise my big toe
in a sliver of light
the nail shines briefly
a bandaid to ensure the sand stays
in the wound
superficial
I dry my hands before the dish water is out
scuff my jacket
it’s already worn
by what I’ve been holding
this knowledge
why people enjoy lilacs so much
and tea
one drop of boiling water falls on my foot
on that highest part, that raised section
a connection of bone and heat
it enters
Jérôme Melançon writes poetry and philosophy, writes about each through the other, writes in French and in English, and translates one into the other. He is the author of two chapbooks with above/ground press (Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright, 2022; Coup, 2020). His poems can be found in the Poets against Fascism anthology and, soon in +doc #4; his reviews appear in periodicities and occasionally in The Temz Review. His most recent collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). He can be found in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, SK, and on various social media platforms as lethejerome.
