The Belladonna Elders Series 1 (Belladonna* Series, 2008)
by Leslie Scalapino & E. Tracy Grinnell
62pp. $15. ISBN: 9-780976-485773
http://belladonnaseries.org/eldersseries.htmlreview by Craig Santos Perez
Belladonna* is easily one of my favorite presses because they publish a diverse range of exciting women writers in a variety of formats: chapbooks, perfect-bound individual collections, translations, and anthologies. I also appreciate how Belladonna* publishes writers they host in their reading series; since I don’t live in New York, this allows me to read a glimpse of the scene. One of their newest projects, “The Elders Series,” comprises of a series of readings guest-hosted by writers and the writers who’ve influenced and inspired them. Each event is accompanied by the publication of a book that features the writers and a conversation between them.
The first anthology in this series features work by Leslie Scalapino and E. Tracy Grinnell. The book opens with a selection from Grinnell’s project titled “Helen: A Fugue,” a disjunctive, lyrical fugue-like composition that seems to move within, outside, and through the complexities of “Helen.” The poem revolves around speaking, naming, and dreaming:
..........................The I
..........................Speaking I
..........................by the blue pool
..........................the proverbial number of swans
..........................rushes throng
..........................in swansea
..........................I happened to be dying
...................................in others’ words (7)
Placing us within the space of the “Speaking I” creates an unstable surface through which to experience the language of the poem. In another section of the poem, we read: “fleeing, flying, floating / in the transparency of / surfaces // permeability of / voices, distinguishing / among // the Name-shape / Name-phantom of // I” (8). The poem seems to move between an interior voice of an imagined Helen and an exterior voice of the poet imagining Helen. As readers, we are situated within the permeability of voices and the variable surfaces those voices create. Grinnell often comments on the effects of language itself in this process:
........................In its own words
........................the words
........................of residual translations
.....................................hover
........................in the mind
........................the afterimage’s horizon...............of
....................................thought
........................so written
........................in the foreign tongue (11)
Translation is an important theme throughout the poem: translation of self, translation of experience, translation of trauma, translation into language. The figure in the poem and its voices travels across seas and learns new landscapes and languages among various ruins. I’m curious to read the entirety of “Helen: A Fugue” to see how it develops. The other thread of Grinnell’s contribution is titled “Hell and Lower Evil,” a homophonic translation of Claude Cahun’s “Hélène la rebelle.” The translations connect thematically to “Helen: A Fugue” and add yet another voice and reference to the fugue as the three pages of translations are interspersed throughout the excerpt of “Helen: A Fugue.”
Leslie Scalapino’s contribution, a Noh play titled “A Pear, Actions are Erased,” begins with a short note describing how the play is to be performed: “Performed by three women speaking from memory (or along with voiceover): Left-side Speaker, Right-side Speaker, and #3 Outsider-Renegade. They speak the line breaks lightly in sweet-sounding atonal voices, always serene (sometimes they sing individual words as highlighted tones or sing a whole poem, each word atonal) […]” (29). The note continues in meticulous detail, describing the variations of tone as well as the complex relationship of the “pair” of voices. The first page of the play reads:
............................................................dreamed
............................................................I hit the sun
............................................................last night
............................................................with my hand
L........A man
..........inviting R.....to
..........to.................................collaborate(arrives in the room)
...............................................................................on—?
..........his glistening black...................................(he’s in)
..........robes—seen in the moon........................enters
..........the room............lies in furious
..................he lies to himself (30)
The play continues to trace the collaboration of voices, as if various parts of the self remain in conflict, as if thought “see[s] itself by ‘rebelling’” (34). Themes of seeing, perception, action, movement, and even racism occur throughout—sometimes directly and sometimes obliquely. We are never sure what is occurring—or had occurred to compel these voices. Instead, actions and thoughts appear “to be chasing each other” (48). As readers, we end up chasing these rebelling voices.
The anthology ends with a conversation between Grinnell and Scalapino about their work. I really appreciate this conversation because it specifically discusses the work included in this anthology, as opposed to a general discussion of poetics. In addition, it’s an actual conversation as opposed to an interview of “The Elder” poet; we learn as much about Grinnell’s work as we do about Scalapino’s play. One of the more interesting moments in the conversation occurs when Scalapino actually quotes from what seems like a prior note from Grinnell in which she talks about her contribution to the anthology. Scalapino goes on to discuss the work with dazzling insight. I love having this conversation included in the anthology because it really allows us to compare our readings of the work to the authors’ interpretations. Further, it compliments the idea of the anthology as an event through which the reader participates.
Overall, I am excited about Belladonna’s new venture. The Elders Series sincerely captures the importance of being inspired by older, living poets and the importance of honoring those who continue to influence new generations of poets.
Craig Santos Perez is the co-founder of Achiote Press and author of from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008) and from unincorporated territory [saina] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2010).