Franck Venaille 1936–
paris, france
V
enaille turned to poetry writing after having fought in the Algerian
war and has written extensively on his war experiences. Venaille began
and directed two magazines, Chorus (1968–1974) and Monsieur Bloom(1978–1981). His La Descente de l’Escaut won the Prix Mallarmé, Prix Wallonie-
Bruxelles, and Grand Prix de Poésie de la Ville de Paris. Venaille has also done
much radio work for France Culture. Principal works: La Tentation de la sainteté,
1985; L’Apprenti foudroyé, 1986; Cavalier cheval, 1989; Les Enfants gâtés, 1989; Le
Sultan d’Istamboul, 1991; La Halte belge, 1994; La Descente de l’Escaut, 1995;
Capitaine de l’angoisse animale, 1998.
In Praise of Robert Desnos
Sometimes we dream of young brunettes, a little mad, with whom it would be
lovely to listen to Coltrane and Ornette Coleman into all hours, with the dawn
rising on ta√eta, brocades, stoles, but don’t let anyone imagine some sort of
nocturnal deliquescence—we’d have made love by ancestral rules with a bit of
cold perversity, even distancing I don’t want you to love me, you will say, for then
you’d be like me Like those statues stretched out, not cadavers, not two beasts
coupled the cipher of your lips on my hips like the scarlet of your nails and of my
blood that will splash at noon.
—mary ann caws
Now They Tell Me
Now they tell me I’m like those August children digging ridiculous ditches
next to a castle that will collapse from them. Scarcely is the sand taken away when
it slides, spurts, scattering a light rain over me, and soon I give up, my eyes
burned, my shoulders covered over, and the children are thinking about the next
quarry. I don’t even have the strength the desire to try any dialogue. Betrayed,
vulnerable, what can alcohol do except hasten the moment when the spade will
rain its blows upon me? I land in the pain that I was mocking from the height of
my factitious happiness they are going to question me soon, demand clarification
I hand over to them the date of my suicide which has been endlessly put o√ for