The Always Already Absent Present by Anne Tardos

The neutral tone I find in your recent work has a feeling of iron about it, but also the tenderness of angels and the clarity of fjords.

—John Olson


In counts of seven, Anne Tardos unfolds the poem to parabolic possibility, distilling all of the possible-impossible data pouring in from the universe to thrilling lines of time and light. Seven is the poet's number, its obdurate mystery opening the poem to asymmetric possibility. And the terrifying expanse of information and existence is thus made human scale--we can, through her shaped and shapely pieces, connect to what it is to speak and breathe in a simultaneous moment that may exist right now.

—Marcella Durand 

I love the way she sticks to the point while also dispensing with it. Her references to the animal kingdom are welcome antidotes to the philosophical complexities she entertains.

—Kit Robinson


These poems seem to dwell in mystery, and wonder, and humor—with a kind of zeal for the vastness and complexities of our experiences as humans.

—Michael O’Driscoll



Anne Tardos, American poet, is the author of thirteen books of poetry. Many of which have been translated and published in dozens of anthologies and journals around the world. She is the editor of three posthumous collections of poetry by Jackson Mac Low.

Tardos pioneered a unique multilingual writing style, often complementing her texts with video stills, photographs, and collages. Her writing is renowned for its fluid use of multiple languages and its innovative forms. She has worked in numerous media, creating performance pieces, radio plays, videos, and musical compositions. Her multilingual and multimedia works have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the West German Radio, WDR; the XLIV Venice Biennale; and in many international sound poetry festivals, including Festival La Bâtie, Geneva; text-ljud Festival, Stockholm; Scene Wien, Vienna; and Zwischentoene, Cologne.

She has received fellowships, grants, and commissions from The Ford Foundation, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Emily Harvey Foundation. Her poems have been commissioned by Thomas Buckner and the Dominque Lévy Gallery, among others. Tardos lives in New York City with her husband, the composer Michael Byron.


Book Information:

· Paperback: 96 pages

· Binding: Perfect-Bound

· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] 

· ISBN: 978-1-60964-490-1

$18