While reading Sappho’s fragments,  If not, Winter, translated by Anne Carson, I am interested in reading other Anne Carson’s poetry. Before that, I was also inspired by her public lectures which I viewed online.

The main purpose for the visit to the National Poetry Library is to view her book Nox, 2021.

Reason that I would like to see the book in person , as the content is not only a visual image to me, but the time spent on flipping the pages and process to read, is also important to me.

In Nox, the pages are linked all together. There are few special qualities I would like to mention. Firstly, it is the mechanical printing, with the digital image reproduced by printers, the image of scratch papers and marks on the pages are flatten. This is not what I can experience through the computer screen when I first read through the book. The image shows the texture of some scratch paper, loosely on the book pages, it feels like you can touch it or pick it up. It is like an illusion, or may be not intentionally meant to be. It brings me a feeling of separation.

There are pieces of paper put in the pages, with Anne Carson’s writing, some pages are connected together some are not, and some are the same images reproducing for a few times. For how long the pages the audience would like to read totally depends on themselves. In some pages that included a few repetitive images, I unfolded all the pages and put it on the table. I felt like I was in some movie scenery. But there is no start or ending point.

There are also lots of other poet’s works in the poetry library, in different form of blinding, or the use of materials, I am going for the next time and explore more on the other materials.

Ref/

Carson, A. (2010) Nox. New York, NY: New Directions.

Anne Carson's Public Lecture: “Stillness” , Centre for Comparative Literature  (Tuesday, February 4, 202) Directed by Anonymous .

Anne Carson, Conversation, 26 October 2016 Directed by Anonymous .