Description
Poetry. In nine Cantos—spheres of hell—Roger Farr's I AM A CITY STILL BUT SOON I SHAN'T BE metabolizes the modernist long poem to provide a new, psychogeographical I—witness account of the post—Real city. Avoiding the worn paths of the flaneur, Farr works with "pre-conceptualist" footage of Vancouver shot in 1973, later discovered in a dream. New York becomes an "elegant incubator" for the new avant-gardes, who are preparing for another civil war. Berlin is a nightclub, or a mall, that "kettles" its negations. Nanaimo is a necropolis seen through a lens held by the hand of a dead poet. Meanwhile, a statue of Artemis explodes from the streets in Siracusa, setting off a riot during the 2010 Olympics. Throughout, bodies fail to align with their coordinates. Urban streams, floods of capital, and other libidinal "flows" offer multiple routes through the contemporary metropolis.
Author Bio
Gabriola Island, BC resident Roger Farr is the author of four previous books of poetry: the long poem I AM A CITY STILL BUT SOON I SHAN'T BE (2019); IKMQ (2011; finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize); Means (2012); and Surplus (2006). He teaches contemporary literature at Capilano University in North Vancouver, and is currently editing a volume of translations of the French anarchist philosopher Émile Armand.
Author City: Gabriola Island, BC CAN