POETRY THROUGH VIBRATION
PRITCHARD, N.H. EECCHHOOEESS. New York: New York University Press.1971.
Tall 8vo. Original publishers blue cloth with spine lettered in gilt, typographical dust wrappers; pp.[iv], 61, [2] ; slight discolouration to spine; dust wrapper a little marked and with a few crinkles to front cover; otherwise very good.
First edition
N.H. Pritchard published only two volumes of poetry; this edition of Eecchhooeess (1971) and his first book; The Matrix, Poems: 1960–1970 whilst also contributing to a variety of periodicals and anthologies. His revolutionary politics and unusual poetics were intertwined. Speaking on the subject of poetic revolt he said; "What I’m saying about a poetic revolution: I mean, (is) changing the book itself. So when you open into this world, you are involved in … something….in which you can indeed be reborn." This effect is glaringly achieved through his disruptive lexical arrangements and neat butchering of normative order.
Employing unconventional typography and unique spacing, clearly influenced by the movements of Jazz (he was also invovled in jazz poetry recordings), Pritchard achieved a vision of unsyncopated accents and alarming melody which Zachary Schomburg, in a 2007 essay on Pritchard’s work for Octopus Magazine referred to as, "Pritchard’s [poetry] doesn’t approach meaning through narrative or melody, but through vibrations: vibrations of life, black life, urban life, jazz culture, pre-hip-hop, vibrations of what was more directly encountered in the literature of the Black Arts Movement.”.
The last twenty years of his life are seemingly as obscure as his opaque semiotics but his influence on Concrete Poetry is clear and, indeed, most commendable.
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