In Darkness, Yedda Morrison erases—or, significantly, “whites out”—chapter 1 of Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness leaving behind only the words and phrases that reference the natural world. Morrison’s aim is not to comment on the original, but to cull or reframe the remains: “luminous estuary / brooding gloom / sea.” In this brilliantly dark contribution to the emerging fields of conceptual writing and erasure poetics, Morrison gives us (back) our natural world—plucked violently, sadly, beautifully from the “master work.” In Darkness, the reader will discover for herself what is being borrowed, plundered, recycled, purloined. — Robert Fitterman
Hear Ron Silliman discuss Darkness with e-editions author Sarah Cambpell in The Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Off the Shelf series: Poetry Written With An Eraser.