When you see the phrase “still life,” what comes to your mind? Now that I’ve read the very engaging and inventive poems in Matthew Hittinger’s chapbook Pear Slip, I think primarily of pears. This award-winning chapbook (Spire Press, 2007) compiles eight poems, plus a preface entitled “Pear Poetics,” which consider pears from several angles: as a subject of art (oil painting, drawing, watercolor); as a canned or crated commodity; as the often-neglected cousin of the apple; and as an embodiment of the shapely forms of his own poems as they peel down a page. His individual poems are linked not only thematically, but also linguistically. Mr. Hittinger plays with the various homophones and translations of the noun “pear”: to “pare” a piece of fruit; pome (French or Latin for the pear-like “apple” and also a homophone for “poem”); and a “pair” of lovers.
Some aspects of the poet’s ekphrasis are unique; at least, I’ve seen them in no other ekphrastic poem. First, one of his poems responds to the digital wallpaper on a laptop display, an image which he describes as “a stolen painting by Braque.” Secondly, another of his poems responds to the “Untitled” assignation of a painting in a museum.
The blurb on the back cover praises the chapbook as “a fertile concoction. . .wonderful. . .a sustained and disciplined act of fancy” (Linda Gregerson). I agree entirely.
The works of art which inspired the poems in this collection are:
BRAQUE, Georges. Fruit Dish (oil painting)
CEZANNE, Paul. Trois Poires (watercolor and pencil work); and Pots of Flowers and Pears (oil painting)
PISSARRO, Camille. Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket (oil painting)
VAN GOGH, Vincent. Still Life with Grapes, Pears and Lemons; and Still Life with Grapes, Apples, Pear and Lemons; and Still Life with Pears (all oil paintings)
