CADDISH by SUSANA GARDNER

CHRIS MANSEL Engages

CADDISH by Susana Gardner 
(Dusie, Switzerland, 2013) 

Ms. Gardner writes in the poem “Idylls & Rushes”, “Kind-hearted carcasses of matter; /an audience! Feed them your public/ want, indigent scraps pander your/ $15.00 post-modern fare.” Ezra Pound in the Cantos wrote: “Coin is the symbol of equity.” So can we deduce that the “post-modern fare has been reduced upon the quality of the scraps? Ms. Gardner writes in the next section: “half-naked undulating concrete & volatile/ gesture pouring forth rhythm and/ new translation swaying and swaying.” Sometimes a gesture is hidden or ambiguous.  Perhaps in this instance it is in constant motion. Pound wrote late in the Cantos: “They that died in the whirlpool/ And after many vain labours, / Living by stolen meat, chained to the rowingbench, / That he should have a great fame.”

In Ms. Gardner’s poem “Caddish”, she writes: "I came on the isle of LANGUE – came again then -/ Left bare.” Langue is French for language by the way. What poet hasn’t confronted the whole of what there is before them and either taken a step back, felt becalmed or just felt sickened. In fact, she goes on: “Continues to upbraid me. Has never treated me right.” But is Ms. Gardner discussing language or Hilda Doolittle, better known as H.D. who in herself was an extraordinary poet. Pound wasn’t known for his skills in civility.

Also, in “Caddish” we find where Ms. Gardner has written: “What is text really? / A flaw? / Chanced sole androgynous. / I am not very good. I admit. / I abandon text again and again. / I only use it for my own advantage.” Of course every writer uses language to their own advantage. Some of the best poetry/literature has been finished and born from many stops and starts. Where would poetry/literature itself be without notebooks filled with tries and false starts?

Ms. Gardner has written a very provocative book. A book that pushes poetry a step or two into the future with Caddish and with her long poem, "Cuntstruck Lithe Guttersnipes: A MANIED FEST." How can you not like a poem where she asks you to read like Duncan? Robert Duncan that is.

*****

Chris Mansel is a writer, filmmaker, epileptic, musician, photographer and a permanent outsider for some reason. Along with Jake Berry, he formed the band Impermanence who have released one album, Arito. He releases music under the name dilation Impromptu who have released four albums and have just released a new Cd Indentions On The North Face of Everest. His writing has been published in the Experioddi(cyber)cist, Apocryphal Text, and the Atlantic Press among others. He has made over 260 short films for other artists as well as his own work.