Book-of-the-Week

Book of the Week: 1 imagines serif im

 

 

Bernard Gadd wrote an article for The New Zealand Poetry Society entitled “Let the Poetry Rule, Not the rules”, a plea for allowing the poem, particularly the short poem, to dictate its own form. It may be instructive to read it in prep for our Book of the Week by Bernard Gadd, 1 imagines serif im:

 
Gadd describes this book as “mini-verse fun with numbers and symbols”. It is also a book of concrete word puzzles and puns, with meanings hidden just enough below the surface to make it gratifying to try to figure them out. If you enjoyed the typographic and other riddles of Laurence Sterne in Tristram Shandy, you will delight in Bernard Gadd.
4’s forte’s
on parade
+ … too uptight
to kiss
       l     d
a                 e
         .
m             c
        l
(If anyone can figure this last one out, please give me your diagnosis. Alternatively, tell me, why is 11 missing?)
…………

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

Do you have a chapbook published 2010 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Garry Eaton, and are used with permission

 

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Ah! A reference to the puck in hockey, which when shot over three lines to one end of the rink is ‘iced’ and play stops. Mysteries upon mysteries!

  2. There are so many puns that emerge from pondering these poems. The one used for the collection’s title: “One imagines seraphim.” Quite lovely, really, and quite challenging!

  3. Decimal, with the period (decimal point) in the middle, having taken a small liberty with the confusing font of a lower-case “l” (el) and a capital “I” (eye).

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