Partisans

Author: Rodrigo Toscano

Publisher: O Books (1999)

Rodrigo Toscano’s poetry—positing a relation of “one” (of the person) to force/world/class/transformation or control by the outside—moves that relation itself to be that transformation (to be “one” as “their,” “us,” “we”). The relation he makes is language-flicker of motion: “Those objects, she said, subjectify one.” 

His Partisans manufactures space—is a relation of times, gleams as future/past, that is “historically-soluble”—“What will capital’s culture be timing (then)?—What will manufactured space be defining (then)?” That is, “then” is the present: “But to dream now / of something / that isn’t that…”

The individual is a worker as a “wordworker.” Toscano places “one” in relation to that “force” or “world” as an intentionality. There is a simultaneity created by his language’s motion that is a contemplation that is an occurrence itself. Line/word as motion/shape becomes a motion, also perceptual motion, that moves “the terrain” (language and world).