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    Geoffrey Gatza
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    His engagement with the variable foot of William Carlos Williams gives a new spring and all to George Tysh’s remarkable collection The Slip. For much of the book, especially the haunting title poem, an isolated phrase appears, then the next descends, and then another, each open space miming the way breath appears in human speech, as an aid to understanding and an absolute electric charge—at times one of volcanic intensity. The “slip” between word and meaning shimmers, whitens, makes the page a visual playbook of repetitions and variation. Then there are the quotes, gems from recent reading, so that, as in Spicer’s later books, the poem becomes a latticework of the great poetries of many Western tongues. Pessoa, Patti Smith, Irigaray, Deleuze, Isaac Babel, Rancière, Maeterlinck, Laura Riding, beloved Reverdy, Freud, The Castle, Jane Eyre —an aleatory charge animates this work, like the old Merce Cunningham method of drawing slips of paper from a sack to reveal and define the next dance move. Finally I read slips between words, the way you might drop a letter from one word, add a new one, the word pivots and turns and reveals new facets of beauty, meaning, terror. “Pole/ rhymes/ with/ stool,” he writes, in “Crosswords. ” “A/ rebus/ for/ abuse.” He’s an anagram kid, like me; you would be too, perhaps, were your name Tysh. It’s a wonderfully young book, vivacious yet wise and vatic, like Jean Seberg in A Bout de Souffle. And my God, so beautiful. —Kevin Killian In Paris in the '60s, George Tysh edited the journal Blue Pig with poet David Ball, and collaborated with conceptual artists Christian Boltanski and Sarkis. From 1980 to 1991, he directed LINES: New Writing at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and (with poet Chris Tysh) edited In Camera, a project devoted to works of the sexual imaginary. He teaches film studies and poetics at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit. Book Information: · Paperback: 100 pages · Binding: Perfect-Bound · Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] · ISBN: 978-1-60964-217-4 $16

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    His engagement with the variable foot of William Carlos Williams gives a new spring and all to George Tysh’s remarkable collection The Slip. For much of the book, especially the haunting title poem, an isolated phrase appears, then the next descends, and then another, each open space miming the way breath appears in human speech, as an aid to understanding and an absolute electric charge—at times one of volcanic intensity. The “slip” between word and meaning shimmers, whitens, makes the page a visual playbook of repetitions and variation. Then there are the quotes, gems from recent reading, so that, as in Spicer’s later books, the poem becomes a latticework of the great poetries of many Western tongues. Pessoa, Patti Smith, Irigaray, Deleuze, Isaac Babel, Rancière, Maeterlinck, Laura Riding, beloved Reverdy, Freud, The Castle, Jane Eyre —an aleatory charge animates this work, like the old Merce Cunningham method of drawing slips of paper from a sack to reveal and define the next dance move. Finally I read slips between words, the way you might drop a letter from one word, add a new one, the word pivots and turns and reveals new facets of beauty, meaning, terror. “Pole/ rhymes/ with/ stool,” he writes, in “Crosswords. ” “A/ rebus/ for/ abuse.” He’s an anagram kid, like me; you would be too, perhaps, were your name Tysh. It’s a wonderfully young book, vivacious yet wise and vatic, like Jean Seberg in A Bout de Souffle. And my God, so beautiful. —Kevin Killian In Paris in the '60s, George Tysh edited the journal Blue Pig with poet David Ball, and collaborated with conceptual artists Christian Boltanski and Sarkis. From 1980 to 1991, he directed LINES: New Writing at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and (with poet Chris Tysh) edited In Camera, a project devoted to works of the sexual imaginary. He teaches film studies and poetics at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit. Book Information: · Paperback: 100 pages · Binding: Perfect-Bound · Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] · ISBN: 978-1-60964-217-4 $16

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    346 views14 pages

    The Slip by George Tysh Book Preview

    Uploaded by

    Geoffrey Gatza
    His engagement with the variable foot of William Carlos Williams gives a new spring and all to George Tysh’s remarkable collection The Slip. For much of the book, especially the haunting title poem, an isolated phrase appears, then the next descends, and then another, each open space miming the way breath appears in human speech, as an aid to understanding and an absolute electric charge—at times one of volcanic intensity. The “slip” between word and meaning shimmers, whitens, makes the page a visual playbook of repetitions and variation. Then there are the quotes, gems from recent reading, so that, as in Spicer’s later books, the poem becomes a latticework of the great poetries of many Western tongues. Pessoa, Patti Smith, Irigaray, Deleuze, Isaac Babel, Rancière, Maeterlinck, Laura Riding, beloved Reverdy, Freud, The Castle, Jane Eyre —an aleatory charge animates this work, like the old Merce Cunningham method of drawing slips of paper from a sack to reveal and define the next dance move. Finally I read slips between words, the way you might drop a letter from one word, add a new one, the word pivots and turns and reveals new facets of beauty, meaning, terror. “Pole/ rhymes/ with/ stool,” he writes, in “Crosswords. ” “A/ rebus/ for/ abuse.” He’s an anagram kid, like me; you would be too, perhaps, were your name Tysh. It’s a wonderfully young book, vivacious yet wise and vatic, like Jean Seberg in A Bout de Souffle. And my God, so beautiful. —Kevin Killian In Paris in the '60s, George Tysh edited the journal Blue Pig with poet David Ball, and collaborated with conceptual artists Christian Boltanski and Sarkis. From 1980 to 1991, he directed LINES: New Writing at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and (with poet Chris Tysh) edited In Camera, a project devoted to works of the sexual imaginary. He teaches film studies and poetics at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit. Book Information: · Paperback: 100 pages · Binding: Perfect-Bound · Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] · ISBN: 978-1-60964-217-4 $16

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    of 14

    THE SLIP

    GEORGE TYSH

    BLAZEVOX[BOOKS]
    Buffalo, New York

    THE SLIP
    by George Tysh
    Copyright 2015
    Published by BlazeVOX [books]
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without
    the publishers written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.
    Printed in the United States of America
    Interior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza
    Cover and interior art by Janet Hamrick
    First Edition
    ISBN: 978-1-60964-217-4
    Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937798
    BlazeVOX [books]
    131 Euclid Ave
    Kenmore, NY 14217
    Editor@blazevox.org

    p ublisher of weird little books

    BlazeVOX [ books ]
    blazevox.org
    21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

    The Slip

    sometimes
    set or whole
    a quiet fear
    wears
    sleeves of death
    dancers au pair
    a piano
    sounding
    the song
    we wish to hear
    "All Mysteries"
    rumbles
    in evening air
    of rain tracing
    snow trails
    to
    which we turn
    and ringing
    interrupts the dance

    17

    "the separation
    of movement from
    steady rhythm"
    an embryo
    from an impresario
    plowing
    salting
    and then no matter
    "far from breaking
    up the whole,
    false
    continuities are"
    still there
    a quiet fear
    wearing sleeves
    of death's
    elegance
    aprs tout

    18

    2.

    open palm
    above the cup
    emanate waves
    of oolong
    peripheral
    glimpse of wool
    cap as letters
    arrive
    resisting the
    impulse to move from a
    state of lesser
    to greater complexity
    accidentally
    a leg posed
    on this narrow
    plane of sun
    we (incomprehend)
    in the space
    between words
    tracing
    steps

    19

    3.

    pursuit and capture


    confinement
    and restraint
    the pleasures of the spirit
    are inexhaustible:
    to be stolen
    from a room at
    night
    and taken to a
    faraway land
    to be held down
    somewhere
    what love
    that has such people
    if we have it to explain
    the surprise
    is "dutiful"
    as it drifts into
    further
    reaches
    unspoken

    20

    4.

    quiet rains
    over nothing
    and back to
    solace
    save the mode
    water
    falling on iron hills
    a dragon sips
    welcome peace
    its icon arranged
    on the bottle
    a product
    of a particular
    malady
    that thus
    one may fear
    the throes of
    a "moist sweet"
    muffled by clothes
    or a distinct
    teardrop
    in underbrush
    a hailstorm
    through brambles
    the sighing of
    a penis
    in some forgotten
    hell

    21

    5.

    what is it
    of the untried
    American
    partner
    that would lead
    "at this evening
    hour" to unseemly
    delight
    "I will leave
    you by yourself
    white dream," it
    seemed to say
    the words were
    hardly out of
    place in our
    murmuring
    and "shut the
    closet to conceal
    the strange, wraithlike
    apparel it contained"
    who would believe
    "now, I thought"
    these wrappings
    this incessant
    rain
    of longing
    and stirring

    22

    6.

    "stepping forth"
    (an angel
    on a sidewalk)
    from clouds
    the notyet-scandal
    of the thing
    shown
    its gai savoir
    of
    specters in heels
    thrown
    into illicit
    becoming
    as they undo the
    "specimen dream"

    23

    7.

    the top of his head


    flies off
    in response to some screams
    it matters not
    that she
    inflates a divan
    with every breath
    their storm
    widens across the tranquil
    earth
    the heart throbs
    before the
    screen goes dark
    under formal eaves a fan
    turns slowly
    to bubbling brooks of laughter
    what is it
    that she
    now knows more?
    "or perhaps she rules through
    the beauty
    you sometimes mention"
    at night

    24

    8.

    abstraction
    soaked
    in vinegar
    23 seconds
    smoking weeds
    of an illusion
    rising with the sun
    in showers
    there is no
    doubt
    and floods
    the heart

    25

    9.

    "sophisticated women"
    brush
    unthinkable hair
    and stare
    wildly at calamity
    as if playing with moss
    "illusions are
    more common than changes
    in fortune"
    says the lady
    who "would stop you
    as you went by"
    and "continue painting
    after the end of
    painting" pink
    lips and toes

    26

    Nothing by You

    strange brew
    smoky surface
    and mahogany
    depths
    your
    love-lone-liness
    after midnight
    to hear it
    in my sleep
    "We move with ease
    from one to the other"
    nothing by you
    omitted without discomfort
    that aerosol
    in the face of
    thought
    (precisely
    what occasions)
    a persistent odor
    of whatever you like
    between women
    this our doing
    as night falls
    into night
    out
    of
    sleep
    (gender, femmes, "race," etc.)

    27

    building casts a partial


    shadow
    there are cars and sun
    evidence of ignorance
    hooks in stays
    a voice in darkness calling
    id to idiot
    wanter to wanker
    to my place
    at the
    farther wall
    (modr)
    noble
    sentimental
    supple
    elemental
    practiced
    joy
    "Along the way
    our lives...
    repeatedly
    changed"

    28

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