“Lambert’s writing points to the prison bars and walls, attempts to pry them apart or pull them down…” says translator John Taylor in his engaging and informative introduction to Of Desire and Decarceration, the new Diálogos release which collects, in their entirety, Belgian Francophone poet Charline Lambert‘s first four books. (You can read Taylor’s complete essay at Hopscotch Translation, here.) Here is a brief sample from the book, which may give an idea of the kind of language/body play which powers this work:

from: Dialyzing

What she wants, is to thrust her two hands into this desire as she would into a washbasin, bring this water to her face and rinse herself with this light.

She has not yet gleamed.

****

She keeps undressing and, nude, in a delta mood, throws herself somewhere. Becomes flustered, lets herself be infused in another field, another body, another occupation force.

She creates herself, through invasions, through retreats.

Speaks of territories, and defends herself.

****

Sometimes land, sometimes border, she indicates no position, no precise geographical localization.

She fluctuates, frees her contours, draws watersheds in quicksand.

No properties, except those of all the chemical elements she synthesizes.

****

She isolates herself in archipelagos, divides herself into flames.

Thickens in a swamp, is resorbed in a smell.

She occupies herself.

****

She keeps bathing in broad forms—lakes, forests, and skins—flees like a wandering voluptuousness into their bodies. Depending on their cramps, their strained muscles.

She crosses their meridians. Seeks the palpitating liver there, to hemolyze her passions.

Of Desire and Decarceration launches in September 2024; now available for preorder.