The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

HÉDI KADDOUR

If I say:
A swallow skims,
I am asked:
Skims what?
The street,
the rooftop,
the meadow?

I need more information.
For example:
A swallow skims the rooftop.
It was enough to add the complement.

Thus sometimes
the verb needs a complement.
—michael palmer

Hédi Kaddour 1945–

tunis, tunisia

K

addour is a critic and a contributor to such journals as the American

Poetry Review. His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris

Review, Poetry, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, and Verse. He

has been director of the Atelier d’écriture at the Centre d’études poétiques and

currently teaches literature, drama, and creative writing in Lyon, in addition to

writing a theater column. Principal works: La Fin des vendanges, 1989; La Chaise

vide, 1993; Jamais une ombre simple, 1994; L’Émotion impossible, 1994; Les Fileuses,

1995; Passage au Luxembourg: Poèmes, 2000.