Review of "In Betweenness" by Pierre Joris

"In Betweenness" by Pierre Joris was offered by Poets.org's Poem-A-Day on January 22, 2014.  A link to the poem, including the poet's notes, may be found here:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23842.

Pierre Joris teaches poetry at the State University of New York at Albany.  In addition to being a published poet in his own right, he is a respected translator of poetry, twice the recipient of PEN awards for translation.  Additional biographical information may be found here:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/425?utm_source=PAD%3A+In+Betweenness+by+Pierre+Joris&utm_campaign=poemaday_012214&utm_medium=email

que dieu vous le rende dans l'autre monde means "that god returns it to you in the other world" in French.

son [sic, should be sen] vada o resti intanto non partirai di qua means something like "begone or remains in the meantime you will not leave here" in Italian.  It is a quote from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni http://www.mozart.cat/aries/aria_540b.htm.

Mr. Joris may have been having a fourth dimensional moment when he composed "In Betweenness."  He could feel today between "the day before yesterday and yesterday."  I felt as though the shadow of a tesseract passed over me as I read his words.