Martin Bidney

Six Dialogic Poetry Chapbooks Martin Bidney

Jump in! The six "chapbook" collections were composed purely for pleasure - mine and yours. I have one theme and one technique. The theme is dialogue, and the technique is music made with words. Every numbered entry is dialogic, an encounter of two voices. First I write about fictive taxi drivers I talk with. Then I hold dialogues with 48 paintings by Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967), one of the world's most enjoyable painters. My third venture is to converse with the spirit of the Gallic ballade writer François Villon (1431-ca. 1463. I alter his ballad form in small ways while keeping the Frenchman's tight, sweet harmonies. Project number four is to reveal my "Russian Loves" by translating some all-time favorite lyrics from the Russian, while answering them with "replies" or commentary poems with similar forms or topics. I focus on Afanasy Fet (1820-1892), a major though neglected Russian master. The strangest item in this section is my re-translation of K. D. Balmont's version of Poe's "The Bells" back into English. Ten times better than Poe! My fifth offering is a set of "reactions" to the flash fictions of Franz Kafka. I include comments on his life and writing - plus a comment on a slightly longer story in my poem "Blumfeld's Two Balls." Don't skip this one... Finally, you get a tour of Dante's hell, freshly updated in a sonnet for each canto, with some "other treats" to clarify the medieval monsterpiece. You see that dialogue's my theme: I'm always responding to a mentor, a guide, a teacher, a friend. As for the technique - music made of words - I care just as much about that. Read every piece aloud and enjoy what it does for your ears. This is the fifteenth poetry book by Martin Bidney, Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University.