Blue Lion Books is pleased to announce
the two volume publication Francis Raven’s haifun, Haifuns (1 – 4) &
5-Haifun: Of Being Divisible, a nonce form of incredible efficacy.
Haifun are characterized by having the same number of words in each
line as lines in each stanza as stanzas on each page. They are thus
squares. So, a 2-haifun has 2 words per line, 2 lines per stanza, 2
stanzas per page, and 40 pages in the section (the haifun number
squared times 10).
For purchase at:
http://stores.lulu.com/bluelionbooks
(scroll down)
“In Haifuns (1-4) Francis Raven creates a new poetic form. A “haifun
has the same number of words in each line as lines in each stanza as
stanzas on a page.” The overall structure is a kind of fractal that
allows Raven to explore the soul of numbers. His “one” haifuns, for
instance, which are isolated words, ring with loneliness without
descending into pathos. The “Two” haifuns set paired stanzas in
conversation or at odds. The total effect is symphonic, as if one by
one or in groups, different instruments joined in making this music
that carries the reader along in suspense.”
—Rae Armantrout
“Of Being Divisible crystallizes the ubiquitous glut of contemporary
experience into a pentagrammic design. Raven has created 250 poems of
5 stanzas each with 5 lines each formed of 5 words. The disparate
seeming parts find their way into a system of toccatas in language,
functioning deftly and resonating with a beguiling depth. Like
fivefold prisms, these works can be perceived as both interior and
exterior, enhancing the reader’s ability to perceive an elevated level
of ambiguity.”
—Sheila E. Murphy
“Francis Raven has found a new form for a new generation that attends
to the inventive while satisfying the reader with tangibility. His
Haifun are more than simple fun, they are a wonderful method to
develop and anchor the one-word poem and beyond. Haifun is an
excellent method to experiment with forms and ideas that are open to
English while retaining the poem within the poetry. Raven is at home
in this form and his lines match the grandeur of this project. This is
a fine book!”
—Geoffrey Gatza
Francis Raven is a graduate student in philosophy at Temple
University. His books include Shifting the Question More Complicated
(Otoliths, 2007), Taste: Gastronomic Poems (Blazevox 2005) and the
novel, Inverted Curvatures (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005). Poems of his have
been published in Mudlark, Conundrum, Chain, Big Bridge, Bird Dog,
Caffeine Destiny, and Spindrift among others. His critical work can be
found in Jacket, Logos, Clamor, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism, The Electronic Book Review, The Emergency Almanac, The
Morning News, The Brooklyn Rail, Media and Culture, In These Times,
The Fulcrum Annual, Rain Taxi, and Flak.