A selection of work by three of the fathers of prose poetry, the French writers Max Jacob, Jean Follain, and Francis Ponge. Baudelaire laid the foundations for prose poetry as a genre in the 19th century; these poets expanded the concept in the first half of the 20th century. Jacob (1876-1944) was a writer of surrealist cubist fables, Ponge (1899-1988) was a master of the language of things, and Follain (1903-1971) merged the everyday with the historical to create a world rich in anniversaries.

Translated by: William Kulik, Beth Archer Brombert