Paul De Vree

1963

Print
Materials: ink, paper

The poem Vertigo Gli (1963) from the Pl.acid.amore collection comes closest to concrete poetry. The words are scattered across the page like flags on a slalom piste. The syllables and words, which sound like sliding skis when pronounced, are printed in capitals. This conjures up ‘BLInkende’ (reflective) snow flying up in the sun and the sound of ‘GLIJdende’ (sliding) skis. De Vree achieves this effect with the deliberate and intelligent use of the appearance of the letters and the sound of the syllables. De Vree says that the poem’s structure is based on the syllable and the sound ‘gli’ that forms the stem of the French word ‘glisser’, the equivalent of the Dutch ‘glijden’ (to slide). ‘Vertigo Gli’ therefore means ‘le vertige de glisser’ or ‘the dizziness of sliding’.

“The poem is primarily concerned with our encounter with love (erotic), during our passage from birth to death in our short lifetime – the essential fragments: a sudden wonder as well as a sudden reality and the not-to-be-averted-fall”, writes De Vree in a letter to Mike Weaver.