To the Barricades

In To the Barricades we move back and forth between historical and contemporary scenes of revolt, from nineteenth-century Parisian street barricades to twenty-first-century occupations and street marches, shifting along the active seam between poetry and revolution. At once elegy (poems dedicated "e;to"e; past revolutionary figures and scenes) and a call for renewed struggle in the here and now, this collection of "e;social lyrics"e; and serial explosions seeks to drive apathy from the field and to recover forgotten "e;radical ideas"e; amidst our current "e;amnesiac condition."e; Avant-garde technique is donated to lyric ends (the expression of social affects), as Arthur Rimbaud presides and the commune is reconvened in Vancouver's streets. To the Barricades continues Collis's "e;life"e; poem, "e;The Barricades Project,"e; which also includes Anarchive (2005) and The Commons (2008). Both the anti-archive of the revolutionary record and the dream of a once and future "e;commons"e; upon which all can equally dwell continue to shape these poems where words are hurried bricks thrown up as "e;barricades"e; in language. "e;Dear effects of / tireless treason / the social only / shuffles if you / move your feet / we've learned this / in a place invaders / called Vancouver / even if we are only / a few and even if / it rains on the day / of the demo"e;