La parola da casa, Serena Piccoli

The Daily Glance

Bill Knott's Stimgmata Errata Etcetera is narrative but offbeat, is funny but insightful. It mostly consists of shorter poems, but it also contains some collages of mostly dated looking art. Really, the poem "Total" seems to be an ars poetica.

Babel on the table falls,
my poem topples
into words
whose rubble shards

I try to stack back up until
they crumble still
again

Well, that's not that funny, but it seems to describe the myriad topics of the poems. Still, many of the pieces rely on humor, and they are comfortably narrative in a way that makes fun of itself. In other words, Knott is aware of what he is doing as he takes the average and makes it humorous by turning it slightly in a new direction.

To be married while sleepwalking
and wake up on your honeymoon
abandoned by the pranster pals who
led you both in blind steps through
the nuptial rites.