x

In x, Dan Chelotti conjures voices that wander, pause, analyze, articulate, attempt to enlighten, fail to enlighten, and then answer that failure with laughter. The wildly inventive imagery in these cinematic pieces lodges them somewhere between the surreal and the pure symbol, colorful and smooth like the lyrics of John Ashbery or Linda Pastan. In Chelotti’s poems, diamonds talk and sheriffs balance frogs on the tips of pens.

The rain says, Listen to Debussy,
go ahead, Debussy will fix you.
—From “Migraine Cure”

The secret to including everything
is to intricately divide your mind
and then, all of a sudden,
undivide it.
—From “Still Life on a Scrolling Background”