The Almost Unbearable Picture Book About How Poetry Works Its Magic – The Marginalian

“Poetry can open locked rooms of possibility, restore numb places to emotion, rekindle desire,” Adrienne Rich has written about the cultural power of poetry. But what is a poem, exactly, and what exactly is its use?

Every time, you come across something so lovely, so innocently beautiful and so profoundly peaceful, that you feel as if the lungs of your soul have been pumped with a great breath of Alpine air. This is a poem that heals fish (public library) is one of the quintessential aesthetic ruminations – a lyrical picture book that offers a playful and tongue-in-cheek answer to the question of what a poem is and what it does. And as it does so, it shines a light on the big question of what we most hunger for in life and how we give shape to those deepest desires.

Written by a French poet, novelist, and dramatist Jean-Pierre Simeóntranslated into English by the founder of Enchanted Lion Books, Claudia Zoe Bedrick (the work of translation that Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska had in mind when she spoke of “that rare miracle when translation ceases to be translation and becomes … to rescue her beloved red fish Leon from the suffering of boredom.

Arthur's mother looks at him.
He closed his eyes,
opening his eyes…

Then he smiled:

— Hurry, give him a poem!

And he walks away from his tuba lesson.

Confused and unsure of what the poem is, Arthur goes to look in the cafeteria, and hears the noodles gasp that there is no poem there. He rummages in the closet and under his bed, but the vacuum cleaner and dust balls are useless.

Determined, Arthur continues his search.
He runs to Lolo's bike shop.
Lolo knows everything, she is always laughing, and she is always in love.
He fixes the tire and sings.

And so begins the amazing story of how poetry comes into existence as a tapestry of images, metaphor, and borrowing from the magpie. Each person along the way contributes to Arthur's tapestry a unique response, combined with the unique poetic truth of his life. Lolo offers:

— A poem, Arthur, is when you're in love and you've got the sky in your mouth.

— Oh…? That's right.

Next, he visits his baker friend, Mrs. Round, echoing Thom Gunn's insistence that “poetry is multifaceted and all around us,” rather than something reserved for a special class of “poets.”

Mrs. Round tells Arthur:

— A poem? I don't know much about that.
But I know one, and it's hot as new bread.
If you eat it, there is less left.

— Oh…? That's right.

Arthur next turns to his neighbor, “old Mahmoud who comes from the desert and waters his rhododendrons every morning at 9:00.”

Mahmoud gives his answer with simple conviction:

— A poem is when you hear the heartbeat of a stone.

— Oh…? That's right.

Arthur rushes home to check on poor Leon, who appears to be sleeping, “floating gently among the seaweed as if in thought.” And because this is the kind of story where a canary can only be named after an Ancient Greek playwright, Arthur next seeks an answer from his canary named Aristophanes, who is “not the brain of a bird.”

Our imagination is left wondering why, on the next page, the cage does not contain a yellow canary but a woman with red hair, who sings Aristophanes' response. Perhaps he is a visual reference in Aristophanes' play Women of the meetingor perhaps he represents the muse, which Tallec invokes to remind us that the muse hides itself in many ways and reveals itself in impossible places.

— Poetry is where words fly.
It's a song sung in the cage.

— Oh…? That's right.

Just then, Arthur's grandmother arrives and is faced with the same question, which she answers after thinking it over, evidenced by the way she “always smiles when she thinks.”

— When you put your old sweater back on or inside out, dear Arthur, you can say it's new again.
The poem turns the words upside down, upside down, and – suddenly! — the world is new.

But the grandmother encourages Arthur to ask his grandfather, who also “used to write poetry … instead of fixing pipes.”

— A poem? Grandpa said pulling his mustache and looking worried. Poetry, well … that's what poets do.

— Oh…? That's right.

– Even if the poets don't know!

Frustrated by the flurry of confusing answers, Arthur returns to Leon's bowl to find him lying soundless under his large rock, covered in seaweed.

— I'm sorry, Leon, I haven't found the poem yet. What I do know is this:

A poem
when you have the sky in your mouth.
Hot as fresh bread,
if you eat it,
little is always left.

A poem
that's when you hear
heartbeat of stone,
when the words flap their wings.
It's a song sung in the cage.

A poem
the words look up
and suddenly!
the world is new.

Leon opens one eye, then the other, and for the first time in his life he speaks.

— Then I am a poet, Arthur.

— Oh…?

Complete the incredible incredible This is a poem that heals fish and other poetic and profound treasures of the Enchanted Lion: Cry, Heart, But Don't BreakDanish pictorial meditation on loss and life, How's the Wind?a French serenade to the senses inspired by a blind child, too Pinocchio: The Origin Storyan Italian investigation into life's biggest questions, then visit poet Elizabeth Alexander on what poetry does for the human spirit.

Illustrations courtesy of Enchanted Lion Books