Cutting the Stems

A playful exploration of language, gender, and identity through experimental poetry.

Cutting the Stems, translated from the French, is a long poem that blends gardening manuals, etymological dictionaries, and gemstone guides into an "un-poetic" pastiche. Wordplay and linguistic borrowings create a surreal exchange between "she" and "he," blurring gender lines and questioning poetic norms. As the florist-speaker tends to words, cutting stems mirrors cutting language, allowing sentences to blo...