***
Deras deklaration och bakgrundshistoria lyder:
"Copper Canyon Press is a nonprofit publisher that believes poetry is vital to language and living. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to authors, editorial acumen, and dedication to the poetry audience.
Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both revered and emerging American poets, translations of classical and contemporary work from many of the world's cultures, re-issues of out-of-print poetry classics, anthologies, and prose books about poetry." Citat från förlaget webbplats.
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Samtliga tre författare som jag valt ut har relativt nyligen förekommit i bloggen. Tillsammans spänner de över tre generationer.
Jag börjar med den mycket produktive Kwame Dawes och hans urvalsantologi Duppy Conqueror.
Kwame Dawes föddes i Ghana 1962 men familjen flyttade till Jamaica 1971 och han tillbringade det mesta av sin barndom och tidiga vuxenliv i Jamaica. Han är en författare av poesi, fiktion, litteraturvetenskap och dramatik. Hans bok Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius är faktiskt den mest auktoritativa studien av Bob Marleys sångtexter. Källa: British Council
Musiken är en tydlig inspirationskälla för följande dikt.
Trickster III, by Kwame Dawes
(From Duppy Conqueror. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2013. [First published in Jacko Jacobus, 1996].)
This bassline is sticky like asphalt
and wet like molasses heated nice and hot,
and the bass drum booms my heart,
jumping me, jump-starting me
to find the path of this sluggish sound;
I follow the tap like a fly catching light
in its rainbow gossamer wings
on top of a big-ear elephant;
(From Duppy Conqueror. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2013. [First published in Jacko Jacobus, 1996].)
This bassline is sticky like asphalt
and wet like molasses heated nice and hot,
and the bass drum booms my heart,
jumping me, jump-starting me
to find the path of this sluggish sound;
I follow the tap like a fly catching light
in its rainbow gossamer wings
on top of a big-ear elephant;
 |
| Junior Marvin |
I follow the pluck of a mute lead-guitar string,
tacking, tacking out a tattoo to the bassline;
I let the syrup surround my legs
and my waist is moving without a cue,
without a clue of where we are going,
walking on the spot like this.
Coolly, deadly, roots sound on my back,
and I can conjure hope in anything;
dreams in my cubbyhole of a room where
the roaches scuttle from the tonguing gecko.
This music finds me giddy and centered, but when
morning comes, I am lost again, no love, just lost again.
***
"Copper Canyon har publicerat över 400 titlar, bland annat verk av nobelpristagarna Pablo Neruda, Odysseas Elytis, Octavio Paz, Vincente Aleixandre och Rabindranath Tagore; Pulitzerprisvinnarna Ted Kooser, Carolyn Kizer, Maxine Kumin, W.S. Merwin och Theodore Roethke; National Book Award vinnarna Hayden Carruth, Lucille Clifton och Ruth Stone; Och några av de mest originella samtida poeterna och översättarna som Jim Harrison, C.D. Wright, Red Pine, Norman Dubie, Arthur Sze och Lucia Perillo." Citat från förlagets webbplats.
"Copper Canyon har publicerat över 400 titlar, bland annat verk av nobelpristagarna Pablo Neruda, Odysseas Elytis, Octavio Paz, Vincente Aleixandre och Rabindranath Tagore; Pulitzerprisvinnarna Ted Kooser, Carolyn Kizer, Maxine Kumin, W.S. Merwin och Theodore Roethke; National Book Award vinnarna Hayden Carruth, Lucille Clifton och Ruth Stone; Och några av de mest originella samtida poeterna och översättarna som Jim Harrison, C.D. Wright, Red Pine, Norman Dubie, Arthur Sze och Lucia Perillo." Citat från förlagets webbplats.
Jag skulle egentligen ha läst "Straw for fire" av Theodore Roethke, men fick inte tag i den. Så det får bli ett nytt nedslag i W.S. Merwins finstämda bok, The moon before morning.
W.S. Merwin har vunnit två Pulitzer-pris i kategorin poesi. Först 1971 för boken "The carrier of ladders" och sedan 2009 för samlingen "The shadow of Sirius".
William Stanley Merwin fyller 90 år den 30 september, och åldrandet är ett centralt tema i boken som reciteras.
*
A step at a time, by W.S. Merwin
(From The moon before morning. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2015.)
Now one eye daylight
and one not
there was a lifetime
before they flew
their true colors
but I must have known
the moment I was born
the pans of the balance
swinging along with me
always two poles
with the seasons rocking
between them
and the familiar the unexplored
the city the country
abroad almost at home
and home never quite there
just the way it was before
left foot right foot
on the same way
my own way
of finding and losing
and in my own time
coming to one
love one place
day and night
as they came to me
but the knowing and the rain
the dream and the morning
the wind the pain
the love the burning
it seems you must let them come
so you can let them go
you must let them go
so you let them come
***
Och så här lyckas Copper Canyon Press hålla ihop verksamheten ekonomiskt.
(From The moon before morning. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2015.)
Now one eye daylight
and one not
there was a lifetime
before they flew
their true colors
but I must have known
the moment I was born
the pans of the balance
swinging along with me
always two poles
with the seasons rocking
between them
and the familiar the unexplored
the city the country
abroad almost at home
and home never quite there
just the way it was before
left foot right foot
on the same way
my own way
of finding and losing
and in my own time
coming to one
love one place
day and night
as they came to me
but the knowing and the rain
the dream and the morning
the wind the pain
the love the burning
it seems you must let them come
so you can let them go
you must let them go
so you let them come
***
Och så här lyckas Copper Canyon Press hålla ihop verksamheten ekonomiskt.
"Over the past twenty years, the Press developed an active fundraising program, and approximately fifty percent of annual revenues are contributed. Major support has come from Lannan Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission, Humanities Washington, the Breneman-Jaech Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Lila Wallace / Reader's Digest Fund, the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and the Starbucks Foundation."
Jag avslutar med förra årets bokdebutant, Ocean Vuong. Jag har redan citerat en dikt ur den samlingen, men nedan får ni ytterligare ett exempel.
Vuong föddes i Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam på en risgård 1988 och invandrade till Hartford, Connecticut, USA tillsammans med sex släktingar år 1990.
Han tilldelades 2014-års Ruth Lilly / Sargent Rosenberg-stipendium från Poetry Foundation och ett Whiting Award 2016, för sin poesi. Källa: Wikipedia
*
Odysseus Redux, by Ocean Vuong
(From Night sky with exit wounds. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2016.)
He entered my room like a shepherd
stepping out of a Caravaggio.
Odysseus Redux, by Ocean Vuong
(From Night sky with exit wounds. Port Townsend : Copper Canyon Press, 2016.)
He entered my room like a shepherd
stepping out of a Caravaggio.
 |
| The Adoration of the Shepherds (1533) Polidoro da Caravaggio |
All that remains of the sentence
is a line
of black hair stranded
at my feet.
Back from the wind, he called to me
with a mouthful of crickets -
smoke & jasmine rising
from his hair. I waited
for the night to wane
into decades - before reaching
for his hands. Then we danced
without knowing it: my shadow
deepening his on the shag.
Outside, the sun kept rising.
One of its red petals fell
through the window - & caught
on his tongue. I tried
to pluck it out
but was stopped
by my own face, the mirror,
its cracking, the crickets, every syllable
spilling through.
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