Guernica Editions

Marrying the precise yet nuanced language of his earlier work with new, invented vocabularies and usages, Nicola Vulpe draws deep into the origins of language to confront what it means to write poetry or attempt any artistic endeavour, or, indeed, continue in a world where so many of us struggle, literally, not to drown. Written to be read aloud, to be heard like a poem in the most ancient oral traditions, Through the Waspmouth I Drew You is a synesthetic work that arouses our senses and our intellect. We come to this poem as to a new language, a language whose details and mechanics are opaque, but which, like a child turning to innate linguistic resources, we nonetheless somehow understand, and into which we are drawn and held in thrall.

Osip's beast swells above, / the ancientbloatworm descends / through the tornballoon skywound, / with the uptorrent screet, / the sibilantlight flees. / The beast folds its unfeathered wings, / squeezewriggles / its newtwhitebelly through.

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