No one noticed the red petals, slipped off the table, onto the wooden floor, the vase still attractive, bold flowers with strong stems. It was sometime in the evening, before the light fell. Rustling, shaking in the woodpile outside. Investigating. No one, nothing. A jet passing, a distant storm. No vapor trail, no thunder. Walking around the cabin. Summer evening, warm, still. It’s been days and the petals have lost none of their color. Brilliant red. The vase disappeared, flowers tossed on the compost. Unconscious cleaning up after. But the petals persisted. No one noticed they had slipped onto the wooden floor. Passing by, scattering, moving aside. Perhaps it was late in the evening, when the light was dim and the wind had died down. Something in the night sky more compelling. But the slightest movement, somewhere, sometime, and the petals slipped to the wooden floor, leaving the vase and the bright, strong stems.
The earliest manifesto published in Osiris stated that Osiris would publish work that had an “organic” source. This simply meant that art in the broadest sense of the word should be free to explore those spiritual, psychological, emotional, and intellectual aspects of people’s lives that were not connected to nations or social groupings. It is clear to me now that these thoughts were related to my own education in philosophy and theology and also to the intense debate on the relationship between various fields of intellectual inquiry, namely the sciences and the arts.
Osiris has always published work by people who take risks, who expose language, explore the relationships between people and our planet, between people and their consciousness, memories, interactions with others (animal, human, plant, etc.), and who allow the formal elements of art and literature to express a point of view not necessarily represented by narrative discourse. We have not been part of the American fascination with narrative. Narrative elements, of course, are often present in all kinds of abstract discourse and art, but the art of story telling and persuasion has not been something Osiris nurtures.
Osiris can be read from cover to cover; there is a conscious ordering of elements. Each echoes or anticipates or concludes and intensifies the one it precedes or follows. Each issue is a whole, a gesture, a movement towards something beyond each contributor’s work.
Each issue is an act of faith, a Kierkegaardian leap of faith. Is there anything out there? How can we include the very young, those whose voices are so vital to the continued evolution of the community of artists and writers. Perfection is not a necessary element; the monotonous formulaic use of language that often characterizes academic writing is something we do not embrace.
In April, Osiris will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In 1972, in Averill Park, New York, we began the adventure. Osiris 1 was composed on an electric typewriter and the French accents were set by hand, with a rapidiograph pen. We had no money and the printer, Beryl Frank, was kind enough to allow us to pay him in installments. Quoting from my journal from that year:
On Friday, November 17, we delivered Osiris 1 to Beryl. Seventeen inches of snow fell three days before and then it was bitterly cold. On December 22, Beryl called to say he had only been able to print half the issue. Because of a bad paper shipment, the pages curled and wrinkled. He promised to finish soon. Osiris 1 arrived at our house on Tuesday, January 2,1973 in an old red Plymouth wagon. We signed and numbered the first fifty copies. What euphoria!
Osiris Poetry: Cincuenta Años de Instinto Poético. Por: María José Candela
Este año, Osiris Poetry, una revista de poesía multilingüe con alcance internacional, cumple cincuenta años desde la publicación de su primer número en enero 2 de 1973. Osiris 1 llegó en un viejo vagón Plymouth rojo un día helado a Averill Park, Nueva York. Era martes y el suelo estaba cubierto de nieve. Desde entonces, la poeta americana Andrea Moorhead y el artista visual americano Robert Moorhead han publicado cientos de poemas en varios idiomas. Cada número de la revista reúne poetas regados por varios rincones de la tierra en una conversación poética, radiante e inmortal, que se asemeja a un gran coro multilingüe. Osiris destaca, sobretodo, a poetas con voces diversas que buscan nuevas expresiones y acercamientos con el instinto poético. La revista celebra voces que asumen desafíos poéticos, incluyendo voces jóvenes, como la del poeta mejicano Fernando Carrera y el poeta español Simon Anton Diego Baena. La poesía en las páginas de Osiris es una poesía vital que precisa los momentos en que, en las palabras de la poeta española Irene Bablé Marrrufi, “el alma al descubierto se encoge como escarcha.” Hay cierta sencillez fulgurante en las páginas de Osiris que obedece al coraje poético intransigente de los poemas más que a una estética definida y preconcebida. La revista también incorpora traducciones y otros textos como entrevistas, incluyendo una entrevista con el maestro del neorrealismo italiano, Michelangelo Antonioni. Visualmente, Osiris cuenta con una gran dirección artística y sus páginas y portadas incluyen diseños gráficos, trabajos con caligrafía y fotografía, entre otros, que añaden texturas y complementan los poemas. Cada volumen es un placer visual. Este año, Osiris celebra cincuenta años de instinto poético.
Osiris brings together voices and visions, moments and mysteries, languages and speech, dreams and outrage, perambulations, meditations, rhapsodies and incantation. A journal named for the god Osiris, son of Geb and Nut, whose sister and wife Isis restored him to life after his brother had murdered him. Transformation and devotion, mystery and quest.
April 2022, 50 years after Osiris began in Averill Park, New York, in a small, rented house on the State Highway. The manifesto of Osiris 1 belongs to the turbulent times in which it was written. Art is Radical Being. Art is radical organic expression of man’s spiritual being in time.
Osiris 2 continues to express a different kind of manifesto, expressed in English, French, and German. Art is the true mysticism of a universally human body. Art makes no distinction between the rhythm of flesh and blood, individual soul, and the world as it evolves.
Osiris 3 and Osiris 4 repeat the manifesto in English, French, German, and Italian.
Osiris 5 changes focus slightly. Art as Radical Being, Irreducible Form of Human Expression.
Osiris 6: Art as Transfiguration of Darkness.
Osiris remembers dismemberment and fragmentation, oblivion and chaos. Osiris remembers sudden wellness, fullness, regeneration. The voices of Osiris move freely between societies and lands, peoples and individuals. They understand the fertility of freedom of expression, the compassion of sharing without judgement, of celebrating the human experience.
50 years of voices— 50 years of fostering expression in many languages—50 years of trying to keep poetry alive, to offer a different view of life decade after decade—50 years of raising the translucent flags of the human voice, heard above the roar of conflicts and in the hollowest recesses of the heart.
Revue biannuelle de poésie contemporaine, Osiris paraît depuis 42 ans. Andrea Moorhead, universitaire, poète, traductrice et photographe (notamment plusieurs recueils parus au Noroît, Au loin en 2010, Géocide en 2013), est la maîtresse d’œuvre de ce bel ouvrage. Elle-même écrit en anglais et en français, ce qu’elle nomme voyage immobile, mais il n’est pour elle qu’une langue : celle de l’autre. On comprendra mieux l’assise d’Osiris : une Babel rayonnante. Se découvrent en langue originale avec leur traduction en anglais, les poèmes de Gustav Munch-Petersen, voix danoise où terre et ciel mêlent leur force : A star sparkles green , in star-tears, star-tear alone/ In the salt of my childhood’s hot stone (EARLY MORNING) , en langue anglaise, neuf poètes : Frances Presley, Sarah Cave, Steve Barfield, Simon Perchik, Alan Britt, John Sibley Williams (les poèmes HOUSE ON FIRE et NO ANIMAL sont saisissants), Rob Cook, son poème FEAR glacerait le sang si ce n’était cette extraordinaire appétence de vivre, ces vers font étrangement songer au tableau de Van Gogh Les Souliers, 1886 :The dogs can already smell /How my shoes will fail /On one of the days missing /Between October et December, suivent les poèmes d’ Andrea Moorhead, et de Randi Ward. On peut lire en français les poèmes de Françoise Hàn Serons nous l’après-midi d’été/ de ceux-là venus quand la Terre/ aura changé son inclinaison /, d’Yves Broussard et de Céline Zins, en grec, avec leur traduction, les poèmes de Anna Griva et Spiros Aravanis, en italien ceux de Laura Caccia et en portugais avec leur traduction ceux de Salgado Maranhăo. S’ajoutent la photographie d’Andrea Moorhead THE MEADOWSet la reproduction du tableau de Robert Moorhead ARABIC LESSONoù la métamorphose du graphème arabe s’offre en diremultiforme, lumière et chants entrelacés.
Cette revue est résolument moderne, outre offrir un juste panorama de la poésie contemporaine internationale, dans la diversité des langues données à entendre et à lire, elle fait résonner le Verbe : Osiris opère ses pouvoirs.
Osiris Poetry 