An excerpt from the book:
CALCULUS
the theory of the knife is simple:
it exists to bring multiple fractions
to tangerines it sings at its work
in the morning and lies down to rest
in velvet or wood at night
it does not often complain
it prefers flesh to cartilage
cartilage to bone avoids
the ineluctable teeth of raindrops
From 1964 to 1984, George Hitchcock was editor and publisher of Kayak magazine.
“A lot of people say I use a lot of long words. If I use a lot of long words, it’s because I’m familiar with a lot of long words. They’re part of my life. A loving attitude toward words is one thing that a poet must have. The poet cares for words and one word it distinctive, has a wonderful sound, is absolutely irreplaceable. It is the mot juste, as Flaubert said, while another is hackneyed, clichéd, overworked. You have to develop that sensitivity to language.”
—from interview with George Hitchcock
in Durak, No. 1
