Passing Duration

A meditative landscape populated and depopulated by real and allegorical episodes. It jolts us out of our habits and into play among meanings. We participate in constructing new experience out of the language, out of realizing its place in social life.

Stephen Rodefer's books of poetry include Four Lectures (The Figures, 1981, co-winner of the San Francisco Poetry Center Award) and Emergency Measures (The Figures, 1987). He has also translated Villon, Sappho and selections from the Greek Anthology.

"Part carnival, part war, the clamor of the world is loud in these works, submitted by a rigorous and passionate intellect to the clarifies which only language can yield from details this fast and dense. Philosopher-harlequin, the poet speaks plainly, having just now invented the line. What other writer can give us this much of the real?"

--Ron Silliman