This essay was written for an occasion that never occurred. A new journal, to be called Burl, was planning for its inaugural issue a festschrift on the work of Robert Grenier. This was circa 1996. I had met Grenier a few years earlier, when I was a graduate student in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at what was then called the Naropa Institute, and he was visiting faculty in its Summer Writing Program. However, my invitation to take part in this project stemmed, if I recall, from having published a poem titled “Homage to Grenier” in a 1995 issue of the journal texture edited by Susan Smith Nash.

Burl, to make a long story short, folded before even one issue appeared— this, despite what I recall was to be an impressive list of established and emerging poets accepted for the inaugural number. By the time it was very clear that the issue would never come out, a good deal of time had passed, and I was a little perplexed as to where else to publish such a long essay— and no doubt distracted by other projects I had long since moved on to. I am nevertheless very happy that this essay, at long last, has found an occasion to be made public. I hope it can play some small role in drawing more attention to a poet who strikes me now, as he did then, as shockingly underappreciated.

Mark DuCharme
Boulder, Colorado