A Descriptive Method

Poetry. Translated from the French by Keith Waldrop. A descriptive method from which all the conventional indicators have been withheld? Like a theory of colors in which no colors are shown? Yes–but then. But then, ‘from the scriptive’ arises a tale, a constellation of voices and silences as singular and engaging as any other in contemporary poetry. To read Claude Royet-Journoud is to experience the elements of the telling itself. Less, for once, is truly more.–Michael Palmer