Third Body

Poetry. Translated from the French by Gian Lombardo. In THIRD BODY, Michel Delville continues in the tradition of Belgian prose poetry exemplified by such prose poets as Henri Michaux, Geo Norge, and Eugene Savitzkaya. These writers honorably and admirably extend the francophone tradition of the prose poem as started in nineteenth century France by Aloysius Bertrand and Charles Baudelaire. Delville utilizes the prose poem as a way to access profound poetic sentiments and provide trenchant social commentary through prosaic means--"To convert our ideas into material things." This conversion requires an understanding not simply of the material conditions Delville wishes to elucidate but also the ways in which political shifts play out on an intimate human scale, and vice versa. Throughout Third Body, Delville's lush, fervent prose poems masterfully articulate his philosophical concerns, while demonstrating a profound pleasure in using this literary form to express them. He is our interpreter, our navigator, our scribe across the terrain he sets out, and we need him here to guide us. We need literature like Delville's to help us make sense of human events because, on its own, "The eye doesn't see beyond sky."