Lead Blues (Essential Poets Series 44)

In Quebec, Alonzo is a well-known poet, writer, critic, and publisher (les editions Trois). Lead Blues is the first translation into English of any of her work. Lead Blues is a slim volume comprising 32 pages of poetry, which can be read either as one long poem or with as many interruptions as the reader desires. Indeed, Alonzos poetic text may leave the reader of traditional poetry quite breathless. Reading her work is like entering another country, another mind, another form. As William Donoghue, her translator, remarks, A certain letting go is required. Lead Blues demands that the reader listen to the versewhich isnt really verseand travel with the poet. It makes for an excellent trip. Donoghue has prefaced Lead Blues with a very fine essay on Alonzo,followed by an equally fine and witty essay on the art of translation.He obviously translates with passion. {Guernica}