'De-create and re-create'

 

“We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.” – Anne Carson

Born in Canada in June of 1950 Carson is a poet, essayist, translator and professor.  She has taught at universities across the U.S. and Canada, including McGill, Michigan and Princeton.   The author of more than 20 books, she is the recipient of three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – the Guggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan.  For Saturday’s Poem here is Carson’s,

 

      Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism

 

            Sunlight slows down Europeans. Look at all those
            spellbound people in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
            sitting deeply. Where does a European go when he
            is ‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
            place—the old dazzler! It lies on the other
            side of attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
             It is A Sunday rather than A Saturday afternoon
            there. Seurat has made this clear by a special
            method. "Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
            when we asked him. He caught us hurrying through
            the chill green shadows like adulterers. The
            river was opening and closing its stone lips.
            The river was pressing Seurat to its lips.