SEVEN PAGES MISSING, VOLUME ONE: Selected Texts 1969–1999

Long associated with the Language poets but lesser known in the U.S. as a major figure, McCaffery has carved out an impressive, distinctive oeuvre of visual, conceptual, lyrical and novelistic poetry for over three decades, in addition to being a founding member of the seminal sound poetry group, The Four Horsemen. As opposed to his American peers, who pioneered a politically charged, experimental version of "realism," McCaffery (who was born in England and has lived in Canada since 1968) has focused on an aesthetics based on theories of deconstruction and the Deleuzian rhizome, reducing the scale of his word-play not just to the level of the meme—the smallest unit of meaning that language can propose—but also to the level of the trace, the very mark of the letter on the page. This volume contains several of his poems in a post-semiotic style, taking off from the concrete poetry tradition, but really forming purely visual images that force the viewer into a reading-like action, akin to deciphering the hieroglyphs of some lost civilization. Of the 16 pieces here, the section from "The Black Debt" is probably the most accessible: puns, social detail, word games and philosophical fragments abound, conjoined only by the comma, effortlessly and pointedly avoiding the closure of the sentence. Several sections from the Gertrude Stein nod "Every Way Oakly" (a group of poems based on Tender Buttons), dada poems like the "Poem for Arthur Cravan," as well as an appendix of "documents"—the poet's own writing on his individual works as they appeared in interviews, book-jacket copy and introductions—give a sense of the scope of McCaffery's achievement. This beautifully produced volume of ground breaking 20th century work has been worth the wait. (June)

Forecast:Critics like Marjorie Perloff have championed McCaffery's work for years; expect strong sales in the small press community, and on campus. (McCaffery teaches at York University in Toronto.) The second volume of this project, due next year from Coach House, will focus on uncollected work.