dime-store alchemy

‘Dime-Store Alchemy’ is a very nice little book by the poet Charles Simic. A collage, a collection, a consideration of Joseph Cornell (the alliteration was not purposeful, and actually makes me wince just a tad, but it is pretty much what I wanted to say, so, there it is). It’s quite brief and yet, like Cornell’s boxes, full of odd and unexpected gems.

‘At some point my need for a solution was replaced by the poetry of my continuous failure.’

‘As darkness fell, our host, the Prince, went to stand on the parapet of his palazzo with his beard on fire.’

‘…divination by the contemplation of surfaces…’

‘The world is beautiful but not sayable. That’s why we need art.’