ROYET-JOURNOUD, Claude [Keith Waldrop, translator]: The Whole of Poetry is Preposition. Iowa City & Paris: La Presse, 2011. First Edition. Trade Paperback. 202x152mm. 47pp. Fine.

The seventh issue of La Presse's series of translations of contemporary French poetry; series editor, Cole Swenson.

An aphoristic complement to Royet-Journoud's book Theory of Prepositions, this collection of propositions manages to be simultaneously provocative and contemplative. The evocation to the preposition is not without its homage to Zukofsky, a poet central to Royet-Journoud's work; they share a deep affinity for the particular, and beyond that, for the actual particulars that compose our days, and for the delicate tissue that binds them. Here the poetics of one of the most important poets of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is articulated -- lucidly and luminously. In short, he sheds light on the subject.