Hello, April

Poem-a-Day, Public Lecture, and Book Launch

This April I am involving myself in the (in)famous poem-a-day challenge: write a poem every day and share them for 30 days.

This is an activity that sent my eyes rolling in high school, scrolling through poetry I didn’t ask for in my Tumblr timeline. Judgmental little Darian was maybe jealous that his peers had the boldness to do something so open and vulnerable, and do it so consistently. Since then, I’ve unlearned a lot of these helpless perceptions. I have come to love seeing artists and writers take on a challenge — succeed or fail, there is always merit in the attempt.

For me, this April is about getting back into a daily poetry writing practice. Over the past several months, my writing has shaped grant applications, journal entries, Spanish learning activities, Substack posts, and theoretical investigations — but rarely poetry. Outside of random poems on my Notes app and raw lines on receipts, poetry went missing from my practice.

Is a poet a poet if they are not writing poetry?

I’m not sure, but I am excited to get back into the swing of things. This month, I will publish a weekly round up of poems I wrote for each day that week. The poems will be raw, unedited, and untitled. I won’t go into this with themes or outcomes predetermined. I just want to write poems with no stakes. I guess my goal here is to get the juices flowing again and to share my poems with you.

To start things off, I give you my first poem of the month from yesterday, April 1st:

My discipline is a knot
I tied with my trying tongue.

Set tip to tip
to instruct my self
in the order of the sanct
and sanct'd myself

out in the world of
Maintenance
I thought myself a jockey
riding a bronco of behaviour
training it with the spur at my heel
healing it with the knot of the whip
      of my tongue.

Spontaneity thus became my sport
the day before me was my field, regulated
my compliant system of routine, a track 
      obediated and marched upon
the shelter of a tight schedule, my uniform 
      I donned at dawn

and how with the morning's inertia at the reins
a sleek beast of abandoned Passion

galloped.

Stay tuned next Wednesday for the week’s poems :^ )

There’s two other very special announcements I would like to share with you:

1. I am giving a public lecture online in culmination of my Research Fellowship at the Center for Book Arts! Since last May, I’ve been studying book arts in relation to place, ecology, and landscape — leaning heavily on the CBA’s stellar collection of artists’ books, multiples, broadsides, and zines. I am excited to share my research with you, a bunch of artists’ book examples, and the idea world I’m building to connect them.

   {carto{ graphy : geo {poiesis{ : writing the edge of land/body, image/text, art/book - Tuesday 15 April, 2025 at 12PM EST - register for free here

{carto{ graphy : geo {poiesis{ : writing the edge of land/body, image/text, art/book is a talk by artist, writer, and independent scholar Darian Razdar investigating contemporary book arts practices as they relate to writing maps, traversing terrain, and making hybrid forms on Earth today. By playing the binary between the aforementioned themes, Darian Razdar presents a queer ecological approach to making sense of life on a damaged planet and the role of book artists in its representation. Discussing works from Museum of Modern Art Archives and Library, David Solo Collection, and Center for Book Arts, this lecture indexes a range of methods within book arts — from the photographic and poetic to the historiographic and scientific. Overall, the speaker responds within the space opened by the question: how do book artists respond to their territories, and why does this matter?

2. I am launching my second chapbook, Edge Theory, on April 27th and it is currently available for pre-order! I’ve been working on this little jewel of a book over the past 8 months with Dallas and Cason at silverfish and collaborating with the genius visual artist Alicia Nauta, who designed the cover and a set of incredible images to accompany my text. Writing this book was maybe the most excrutiating and satisfying creative experience of my life, and working with this team has made this book one of the strongest projects of my career.

Edge Theory book launch @ Art Metropole (896 College Street, Toronto, ON) Sunday 27 April, 2025 from 3-5PM

From the publisher: In Edge Theory, Darian Razdar examines the slippery chasm between self and other. Contaminating theory with poetry and vice-versa, this brief and sexy treatise unspools the ever-shifting nature of relationality through a prism of intertextual references, tautologies, double-negations, and double-entendres. Accompanied by eclectic artwork by Alicia Nauta, Edge Theory is a cerebral and sensual exploration of the contours of desire.

Pre-order direct from silverfish and receive a discount on your copy of Edge Theory ❤️

I’ll be back in Toronto for 5 days to launch this book, and I can’t wait to see you there xx

See you next week with more poems !

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