Sad news indeed. Via Ron Silliman’s blog I learned just now that Anne Blonstein has died of cancer.
This is one of the unforeseen consequences of editing—corresponding with and reading the work of an author only to learn at odd moments and through circuitous routes of their passing. I can only list a few pleasant letters and emails by way of acquaintance, and point new readers in the direction of the psalm published in CLR3, by way of introduction to her work.
When I received the poem, unasked for but welcome in March 2010, it seemed to fit perfectly with what we were trying to do with the translation issue. Its hesitancy and the obvious & calm political agenda are striking; it does the work of self-commentary—”(it enshrouds fragile effort)”—while also aiming for a kind of inculpation, the two words that escape the poem at the outer margin and last line standing for a community and, ultimately, encircling against the stilled language of the cut-up newsreport: “our // you”.
