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Un
Un is a brief and fervently idealistic collection of poems about entropy and human extinction. It is a bleak book, written in a language that is almost English, a tongue that owes more to the near nonsense of Dennis Lee's children's poetry than it does to the eloquent long-line verse of his Civil Elegies. In Un, Lee uses the negative prefix as a fulcrum for "the wordy desyllabification of evil"--he disassembles the English language, dissects the Zeitgeist, writes a half-articulate humanism of despair...
80 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
8 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Lee
123 books48 followersDennis Beynon Lee, OC, MA is a Canadian poet and thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer.
After attending high school at the University of Toronto Schools, Lee received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Toronto. He is best known for his children's writings; his most famous work is the rhymed Alligator Pie (1974). He also wrote the lyrics to the theme song of the 1980s television show Fraggle Rock and, with Philip Balsam, many of the other songs for that show. Balsam and Lee also wrote the songs for the television special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. Lee is co-writer of the story for the film Labyrinth.
After attending high school at the University of Toronto Schools, Lee received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Toronto. He is best known for his children's writings; his most famous work is the rhymed Alligator Pie (1974). He also wrote the lyrics to the theme song of the 1980s television show Fraggle Rock and, with Philip Balsam, many of the other songs for that show. Balsam and Lee also wrote the songs for the television special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. Lee is co-writer of the story for the film Labyrinth.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 18, 2022
In wreck, in dearth, in necksong,
godnexus gone to fat of the land,
into the wordy desyllabification of evil - small
crawlspace for plegics, 4, 3, 2, 1, un.
* * *
A little planet blues, for the
deathwatch.
A season of rictus riffs.
(When schist prevails, and squamous
pinpricks of appetite
vamp to a second future - who'll chant the
mutant genesis? who celebrate
an aevum cleansed of us?)
* * *
Tagalong
snatches, algorithmic
hums. You even wear gene
disguises. Little anti-
threnodic peeps, tell nix in the slurry:
some-
thing matters, no
matter how nano the known.
* * *
As if a
stub, as if a
stutter, as if stigmata -
ramshackle
genera, real on
recall. Sub-
junctive
proof in the lent, kent
firmament -
precious, heart-
precious the
archaeological now.
* * *
In cess, in dis-
ownmost, in ripture,
in slow-mo history cease,
in bio in haemo in necro - yet how
dumbfound how
dazzled, how
mortally lucky to be.
* * *
Lost word in the
green going down,
husk of a logos,
crybaby word, out
dragging your passel of absence -
little word lost, why in the
demeanigned world would I
cradle your lonely?
You, little murderer? You, little cannibal drag?!
* * *
Blind
light, blind
night, blind blinkers.
Blind of the lakelorn /of
lumpen /the scree.
In terminal ought and deny, indelible isprints.
Palping the scandalscript. Sniffing the
petrified fiat.
godnexus gone to fat of the land,
into the wordy desyllabification of evil - small
crawlspace for plegics, 4, 3, 2, 1, un.
- inwreck, pg. 3
* * *
A little planet blues, for the
deathwatch.
A season of rictus riffs.
(When schist prevails, and squamous
pinpricks of appetite
vamp to a second future - who'll chant the
mutant genesis? who celebrate
an aevum cleansed of us?)
- blues, pg. 12
* * *
Tagalong
snatches, algorithmic
hums. You even wear gene
disguises. Little anti-
threnodic peeps, tell nix in the slurry:
some-
thing matters, no
matter how nano the known.
- tagalong, pg. 24
* * *
As if a
stub, as if a
stutter, as if stigmata -
ramshackle
genera, real on
recall. Sub-
junctive
proof in the lent, kent
firmament -
precious, heart-
precious the
archaeological now.
- now, pg. 35
* * *
In cess, in dis-
ownmost, in ripture,
in slow-mo history cease,
in bio in haemo in necro - yet how
dumbfound how
dazzled, how
mortally lucky to be.
- history, pg. 42
* * *
Lost word in the
green going down,
husk of a logos,
crybaby word, out
dragging your passel of absence -
little word lost, why in the
demeanigned world would I
cradle your lonely?
You, little murderer? You, little cannibal drag?!
- word, pg. 53
* * *
Blind
light, blind
night, blind blinkers.
Blind of the lakelorn /of
lumpen /the scree.
In terminal ought and deny, indelible isprints.
Palping the scandalscript. Sniffing the
petrified fiat.
- blind, pg. 61
May 17, 2019
Luscious and poignant at the same time. Lee has invented a language for the ontological husk that constitutes the world of anthropox. Incisively stunning. Bewitching poetry.
September 11, 2024
I would give it zero if I could. A perfect example of why people don’t read modern poetry. Nonsense plus made up words does not make you a genius.
June 27, 2018
Not sure how I feel about this - complete gibberish, jumbled mess - take for instance:
Pidgin
Scribblescript portents unfurl, world-
to, worldfro.
And to comb the signs, to
stammer the uterine painscape
in pidgin apocalypse - how now not
gag on the unward, the once-upon, us
proud planet?
Every poem is exactly like this one - I guess this was his intention?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews