{"id":10620,"date":"2017-08-21T02:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-711166-2356953.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=10620"},"modified":"2017-08-19T15:20:41","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T05:20:41","slug":"letter-from-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter from Paris<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have seen Durer\u2019s famous Rhinoceros and it is real.
\nI\u2019ve been drinking Kir Royale with a topping of red rose petals.
\nPoor rose, unable to defend itself!
\nI read Michaux and learn French for \u201clemon grass\u201d,
\non labels in Tang Fr\u00e8res, for mango.
\nA block away the Seine does its thing,
\nTantric couples kissing on a bridge of padlocked hearts,
\na barge of steaming rubbish passing.
\nA bonded pair of white swans nest
\non the \u00cele de Cit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Apollinaire grew tired of antique words,
\nbut WW1 never killed his need of them.
\nThe Rhinoceros in Paris does wonders for writers\u2019 block.
\nI imagine Heinrich Heine saw Paris full of spires
\nand compared it to Innsbruck, or Nuremberg,
\nan exile\u2019s town haunted by chimneys,
\ngargoyles and manticores.
\nI see \u2018ten thousand chimneys spume\u2019 \u2013
\na poet\u2019s metaphor for the libidinous
\nin the Age of Riesling and Euro self-regard.
\nWriting proceeds like a categorical aperitif<\/em>
\npaid for on infinite credit.<\/p>\n

My Paris is spireless – more rotundas,
\nSecond and Third Empire.
\nParis is my mother\u2019s Buddhist sutra on illusion
\nand all the concentric circles of our suffering.
\nParis is full of words I will never understand,
\nrelatives I will never meet,
\nchairs I will never sit on
\nin galleries that will outlive me.
\nThe poets\u2019 women are \u201cgone from their lives\u201d,
\nlike my mother-in-law,
\na blitz evacuee
\nwho became a model of\u00a0 dyslectic beauty
\n\u201crevealed ten thousand times\u201d.<\/p>\n

I do not promise to make sense of predecessors
\nwho can\u2019t make Paris theirs \u2013 a territory
\nlike rivers. I am not employed
\nto define Paris or to explain
\nwhy Carla Bruni\u2019s pregnancy should interest us,
\nand why she married Nicolas.
\nI don\u2019t know. What did she see in him?
\nNicolas knew the names of flowers, she said.
\nYesterday we studied questions, the open and the closed,
\nthen stopped to watch a demo,
\ndistracted by chants the class rushed to the windows,
\na thousand striking teachers seemed important.
\nThis is our French: American NATO wife,
\nKorean husband, Russian lawyer,
\nthe fur loving Romanian coiffeuse,
\nthe priest from Bucharest.
\nWe finish with a video of creole R\u00e9union.
\nOn the way home I stop for Viennese poppy seed cake.<\/p>\n

Heine came to Paris, kept writing in German,
\nhis partner couldn\u2019t read his poems.
\nTranslating them into French didn\u2019t help her,
\nbut didn\u2019t hurt.
\nShe was German, only ever spoke in German,
\nand never forgot it.
\nI will never be any more French, or blond,
\nthe way the 10th<\/sup> is African, the way the 4th<\/sup> is poodles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter from Paris   I have seen Durer\u2019s famous Rhinoceros and it is real. I\u2019ve been drinking Kir Royale with a topping of red rose petals. Poor rose, unable to defend itself! I read Michaux and learn French for \u201clemon grass\u201d, on labels in Tang Fr\u00e8res, for mango. A block away the Seine does its thing, Tantric couples kissing on a bridge of padlocked hearts, a barge of steaming rubbish passing. A bonded pair of white swans nest on the \u00cele de Cit\u00e9. Apollinaire grew tired of antique words, but WW1 never killed his need of them. The Rhinoceros in Paris does wonders for writers\u2019 block. I imagine Heinrich Heine saw Paris full of spires and compared it to Innsbruck, or Nuremberg, an exile\u2019s town haunted by chimneys, gargoyles and manticores. I see \u2018ten thousand chimneys spume\u2019 \u2013 a poet\u2019s metaphor for the libidinous in the Age of Riesling and Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":10621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2165],"tags":[5,454,530,2161,2166,2262],"yoast_head":"\nLetter from Paris - Peril magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letter from Paris - Peril magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Letter from Paris   I have seen Durer\u2019s famous Rhinoceros and it is real. I\u2019ve been drinking Kir Royale with a topping of red rose petals. Poor rose, unable to defend itself! I read Michaux and learn French for \u201clemon grass\u201d, on labels in Tang Fr\u00e8res, for mango. A block away the Seine does its thing, Tantric couples kissing on a bridge of padlocked hearts, a barge of steaming rubbish passing. A bonded pair of white swans nest on the \u00cele de Cit\u00e9. Apollinaire grew tired of antique words, but WW1 never killed his need of them. The Rhinoceros in Paris does wonders for writers\u2019 block. I imagine Heinrich Heine saw Paris full of spires and compared it to Innsbruck, or Nuremberg, an exile\u2019s town haunted by chimneys, gargoyles and manticores. I see \u2018ten thousand chimneys spume\u2019 \u2013 a poet\u2019s metaphor for the libidinous in the Age of Riesling and Read More »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peril magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-20T16:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-19T05:20:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nil-castellvi-263968.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1632\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Aitken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/\",\"name\":\"Peril magazine\",\"description\":\"Asian-Australian Arts & Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nil-castellvi-263968.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/nil-castellvi-263968.jpg\",\"width\":2448,\"height\":1632},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/\",\"name\":\"Letter from Paris - Peril magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-20T16:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-19T05:20:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/#\/schema\/person\/763e0133576d05b5636a5ac5d8258c29\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/back-editions\/edition31\/letter-from-paris\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Letter from Paris\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/#\/schema\/person\/763e0133576d05b5636a5ac5d8258c29\",\"name\":\"Adam Aitken\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peril.com.au\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1877ceebc2c3afd8e4f060a3f516e31a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1877ceebc2c3afd8e4f060a3f516e31a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adam Aitken\"},\"description\":\"Adam Aitken is a poet, memoirist, academic and editor (with Kim Cheng Boey and Michelle Cahill) of Contemporary Asian Australian Poets (Puncher & Wattmann 2013). 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