Categorics: One, Two and Three

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French studies at the University
of Guelph.

Normand de Bellefeuille has created a new kind of poem, one where lyrics
have become categorics: that is, where nothing seems (or even is)
superfluous, in spite of a profusion of words, phrases, and sentences.
Rhyme seems gone for good, while stanzas are nonexistent. Instead we
find a rhythmic repetition of words and sentences. Like the heart
circulating blood through the body, the poet circulates words through
the book.

For this postmodern writer, intertextuality is indispensable. How could
it be otherwise? As any artist knows, art nourishes itself on art, be it
music, painting, sculpture, or any other art form generously pouring its
signs into the discourse of all. This is not to say that de Bellefeuille
ignores everyday experience. But he does question reality, breaking it
down through meditation and giving it a new dimension.

D.G. Jones has given us a masterful translation of the work of one of
Quebec’s best poets.