Peter Valente on Basil King in “Language is Everything” (2021)

 

spoKe 8 FINAL

 

Poet translator Peter Valente considers Basil King’s poetry and politics in constant conversation with his visual art in a thoughtful essay based on his close readings of King’s visual and poetic work and an interview.  “The dark and the unforgiving can be corrected by a text; history, poetry, politics, language is everything” he quotes King.  “And Basil does it in all his works.”   The essay appears in spoKe 8,  (2021) edited and published by Kevin Gallagher, massspoke.wordpress.com.  $11.