Paris & the Poet: Experimentations with Repetitive Music (2002-2003), by Michael Perret

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

In an echo of Debussy’s obsession with Verlaine and Mallarme (the poetry of his times), Michael Perret’s early poetic “experimentations with repetitive music” reflect an obsession with Reich, Glass and the string quartets of Henryk Gorecki (the music of his). Youthful and original, these poems seek music in a poetic tradition that has abandoned form, finding a clear forerunner in Celan’s own early musically inspired work (“Todesfuge”). His suicide in Paris in 1970 provides the principal theme of the work.

Harkening to an avant-garde that never really was in poetry, these poems point to a path not taken, but still reflect the late 20th century aesthetic breakthroughs generally labeled “Minimalist”.

Michael Perret is a poet and translator from Austin, Texas. His most recent collection is The Miracle on the Cross and Other Mythological Poems (2025 Broadstone Books). Find him on bandcamp @michaelperret.bandcamp.com