Book of the Week – Without Syntax by Lee Gurga
Poems are usually molded by meter, rhyme, syllables, etc. But what if we abandon these structures and embrace the jagged and the raw? Without Syntax, a collection of poetic fragments, dares to do this. Words and phrases chaotically emerge, collide, and scatter.
Gurga’s creation resists easy categorization. It is less a book than an experience. By tossing aside the conventions of poetic form, it carves a space for a rawer engagement with language and meaning.
Also, be sure to check out George Swede’s review of Without Syntax.
Below are selected poems and brief comments and please share your comments about the poems also.
(Please see the poems in Without Syntax to see the proper spacing of the poems)
driftwood
smooth
the
tangled
echo
of
the
sea
The sparseness of this verse invites the reader to fill in the gaps, making the “echo” of the sea not just heard but felt—an invitation to explore the textures of impermanence.
the
world
within
the
world
without
this
bird
fluttering
The “world within” and “world without” suggest an infinite loop where inner and outer realities dissolve into one another. The fluttering bird becomes a metaphor for fleeting consciousness—a connection between our inner and outer worlds.
shy smile soft as a feather as a refugee
Minimal yet profound, this poem hovers between gentleness and grief.
how
i’d
like
to
die
with
bare
feet
touching
This fragment reads like a koan, enigmatic and haunting. The lack of punctuation leaves the meaning open-ended—is it an observation, or a plea? This openness is the poem’s strength, compelling the reader to wrestle with their mortality and connection to the earth.
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You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. Please share your favorite poem from the book with us.
Do you have a full or chapbook length book published in 2020 or earlier that 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 the THF Digital Librarian Dan Campbell and are used with permission.
Comments (2)
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For your interest here is an exercise I presented to the first NZ Poetry Conference several years ago. The first poem I wrote was somewhat lacking in syntax – as many short form poems do. This one worked just as well in reverse and the murmurings from the audience seemed to suggest that it might even have been better in reverse, Interestingly, many other line rearrangements, in any order work quite well too. And the number of arrangements you can try is almost astronomical!
her last letter
cold words
in blue ink, I recall
forever buried
under a pile of rocks.
somewhere
on a ridge
known only to me
a cairn
85 south
85 south
a cairn
known only to me
on a ridge
somewhere
under a pile of rocks.
forever buried
in blue ink, I recall
cold words
her last letter
Many thanks Barry for sharing this!