BLODD WORK: SELECTED PROSE by Ron Padgett
Bamberger Books, 1993, First edition, 104 pp., 6" X 9 1/4", Softcover
Very good
The sixteen pieces here range from the whimsical to the elegiac. Padgett considers the joys and problems of words, in translation and in his own writing, he trains his eyes on artists, including Man Ray, R.B. Kitaj, and George Schneeman, and on writers, from the Cubist Poets (who didn't exist) and Pierre Reverdy, to poets who have shared his adventures. His encounters with strangers in foreign countries are as vivid as portraits of friends close to home. From his inability to distinguish between the words for pineapple and grapefruit, to a diary of his thoughts as his father lies dying half a world away, Padgett offers us lessons in things, and in lives.