FRANCIS PONGEobjeu merges object and game. Taking ‘‘the side of things,’’ he enlarges both their
scope and their substance. In 1937 he joined the Communist Party and was active
in the Resistance. In 1947, however, he broke with communism. From 1952 until
1965 he taught in Paris at the Alliance française and in 1976 won the Neustadt
International Prize for Literature. Principal works: Douze petits écrits, 1926; Le
Parti-pris des choses, 1942; Le Peintre à l’étude, 1948; Proèmes, 1948; La Seine, 1950;
La Rage de l’expression, 1952; Le Grand recueil, 1961; Le Savon, 1967; La Fabrique
du pré, 1971; Abrégé de l’aventure organique, 1976; L’Atelier contemporain, 1977;
Comment une ‘‘Figue’’ de paroles et pourquoi, 1977.
The Pleasures of a Door
Kings never touch a door.It is a joy unknown to them: pushing open whether rudely or kindly one of
those great familiar panels, turning to put it back in place—holding a door in
one’s embrace.
... The joy of grasping one of those tall barriers to a room by the porcelain
knob in its middle; the quick contact in which, with forward motion briefly
arrested, the eye opens wide, and the whole body adjusts to its new surroundings.
With a friendly hand it is stayed a moment longer before giving it a decided
shove and closing oneself in, a condition pleasantly confirmed by the click of the
strong but well-oiled lock.
—lee fahnestock
Blackberries
On typographical bushes constituted by the poem along a road which leads
neither beyond things nor to the spirit, certain fruits are formed by an ag-
glomeration of spheres filled by a drop of ink.
Blacks, pinks, khakis, all on a cluster, they look more like members of an
arrogant family of varying ages than a very lively temptation to pick them o√.
Given the disproportion of the seeds to the pulp, birds find little to appreciate,
so little in the end remains by the time it has traveled from the beak to the anus.