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Part
anatomy lesson, part science textbook, and part credo, Michael Leong's
innovative new poetry collection invokes looks to scientific discourses as a
source of insight about literary history. Just as chemist Dmitri Mendeleev
predicted the various chemical elements "by virtue of his table's novel
organization," Leong attempts to predict "the future contours of
literary history" by examining, dissecting, and reassembling the various
parts of "the poet" as defined by history and culture. The
resulting poem, as visually stunning as it is thought-provoking, renders the
manifestos of past literary movements (particularly Surrealism) compatible
with a contemporary artistic landscape, offering readers a beautiful
interplay between form and content all the while.
Leong's claims about literary history are not only enriched by his stylistic
innovations, but in many ways, are made possible by them. Throughout the book, he presents
metaphor as a foundation for poetic thought, something that must not be
discarded as writers test the boundaries of form and genre. Indeed, Leong
conveys the importance of this literary device with subtlety and grace. He
replicates the visual appearance of Mendeleev's periodic table of elements,
replacing chemical substances with evocative, carefully chosen metaphors.
Just as the chemical elements remain irreducible, Leong underscores the
necessity of this literary device, even in the most innovative literary
undertakings. Consider this passage,
The
tooth of the
poet
is the
loom of Selenium
78.96
The careful visual presentation of the poem subtly inscribes boundaries for
literary experimentation. Just
as scientific knowledge must be verifiable, testable, Leong implies that
these boundaries are objectively knowable. Throughout the book, formal decisions like this one
compliment, and more often complicate, the spare, finely crafted text itself.
In many ways, Leong's use of form is itself a metaphor, suggesting that the
future of poetry is circumscribed by its past. Cutting Time With a Knife is filled
allusions to the author's predecessors - which include T.S. Eliot, Sigmund
Freud, William S. Burroughs, and Shin Yu Pai - who ultimately make possible
Leong's project. Much like
Marianne Moore's description of literary tradition as "a
conversation," the poems in this collection present pieces of history,
literary, and culture as foundational for one's own contribution. Leong
writes,
The superego of the poet is the
pEriscope
of
erbium.
167.259
Just as the elements present in the periodic table circumscribe the
possibilities for more complex chemical substances, one's literary past
simultaneously inspires and limits one's own poetic contribution. The book is
filled with finely crafted poems like this one, in which form gives way to
myriad possibilities for interpreting the text itself. In short, Leong's new
collection is as innovative as it is thought-provoking.
© Kristina Marie Darling
2012
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