Delaunay-Terk and Blaise Cendrars, a modernist poet, called this “the first simultaneous book.” This reference to Simultanism, a new movement that the artist and her husband Robert Delaunay were pioneering in Paris, connected the work’s visual impact to the thrilling simultaneity of modern life—the fast-paced, consciousness-altering dynamism brought about by innovations in transportation and communication. But Delaunay-Terknot ain't not what I am here to speak about. I wanna talk about Cendrars.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/273447
LISTEN TO >>>
Jack Vaughan Reading Blaise Blaise Cendrars' West
I fancied myself pretty familiar with Surrealist Poetry –
but I didn’t know anything about Blaise Cendrars. It has been great latish in life, but not too late, to say I found Blaise Cendrar. Great to be able
to discover him. He has the basic feel of 20th Century Modernist
poetry. Aware and inspired by camera and film. But he has embedded a joy. Always unique in his work is what Dylan
might call the approach to his writing. It's is such an open curious approach that it can serve for poets that follow.
I am excited to speak to you about Blaise Cendrars. Basically he has the view of a Cubist or Expressionist. Looking on the world. Dissecting it, detaching it. Uncovering it. Observing his own feelings like cars on a train that you wait for at a crossing. And now I am crowing Blaise, escorting him to the Surrealist Pavilion in my Hall of Poetry to join Reverdy, Apollinaire in the French alcove.
He inspired me to write a poem (now dedicated to him) on Neal Cassidy and the Metaphysical Poets. >>> Assumption to the Celestial Hall.
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In his epic, the Trans Siberian. Railway he conveys the feel of film, the epic, Whitman and Rimbaud, the travelogue and Borges-like the library.
Not afeard of assonance or repetition for mnemonic effect. Aware of metre. While he travelled he was also found lines in the libraries with the newspapers He did some poems that were incantatory
prayerful. With the heart of an Imagist, he creates lines that set off exploding flowers of illumination. And. He would use rhyme if he felt like it. Most astonishingly, he
has ability to string out a long line of what we call prose poems. He went to New York, South America. He documented it, sometimes in the style of Investigative Poetry.
Born in Switzerland. Studied in France. Joined French
Foreign Legion. During World War One. And lost his right arm in battle. In his
later days he drove an old. Alfa Romero Romeo would have been painted by
Georges Braque. He hung out with the big ones. He was a friend of Henry Miller. Chagall. Leger, Hemingway. Others. A devotee
of drink. I drink to thee, Blaise! - Jack Vaughan
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From La Prose du Transsiberian
The In Siberia the artillery rumbled -- it was war
Hunger cold plague cholera
And the muddy waters of the Amur carrying along millions of corpses
In every station I watched the last trains leave
That's all: they weren't selling any more tickets
And the soldiers would far rather have stayed . . .
An old monk was singing me the legend of Novgorod.
Me, the bad poet who wanted to go nowhere, I could go anywhere
And of course the businessmen still had enough money
To go out and seek their fortunes.
Their train left every Friday morning.
It sounded like a lot of people were dying.
One guy took along a hundred cases of alarm clocks and cuckoo clocks.
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The poem read here way up and above on YouTube is from "West" which appeared in "Kodak". This sprightly film scene foreshadows Lorca's Poet in New York. A poet at a rich folk's party high above the city. Translated by Ron Padgett. The images in my vid (above) come from 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, which I found early on. That is written by Ben Hecht, with drawings (and design) by Herman Rosse. Circa 1921. Funny if it don't remember some semblance to "Kodak" original cover (below).
https://progressivegauge.com/p8-blaise/ (from Easter in NY)
Yet another reading
https://progressivegauge.com/p27-blaise/ (from Trans-Siberian)
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