Q & A With Jacques Rancourt

Q: What can you tell us about the contemporary poetry scene in France?

A: Well, I don't presume to speak for French poets as a whole, but sometimes I sit at the piano, blow the dust off some sheet music, and a hundred sleeping ants scatter like bombed refugees. I once found a stale sponge cake in my piano stool. It was dry as a cuttlefish.

Q: Who are your favourite living French poets?

A: I've always felt drawn to the clamp jars of Sebastian Guillaume - he has a way of cramming a dozen or more chaffinches into a vessel no more than six inches high and four inches in diameter. Then he seals the lid and they're trapped there, twitching, filling the space almost like a liquid. If one catches your eye, the intensity... it's a perfect exchange.

Q: What do you see as the greatest challenges facing contemporary French poets?

A: Well first let me say that I do not view challenges as negative - art is all about confronting, overcoming. So I think that any challenges strengthen us. With that in mind, I would say that the greatest challenge is the large numbers of poets gradually turning to oak. Of course it depends where it starts - Brouillard was able to continue to write for many months while his toes, feet, ankles and lower legs slowly solidified into stiff wooden prosthetics. But once it hardens your lungs or heart... C'est le fin, as we say.