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Photograph of Charles Henry Ford by Penny Arcade, early 1990s

Charles Henri Ford (1913-2002) was a 20th century Renaissance man, admired for his literary criticism, editing and publishing, poetry, photography, film making, and visual art. "Flag of Ecstasy", written for Duchamp, was the title poem of his 1972 poetry collection for Black Sparrow Press.

Ford was at the epicenter of the art world co-authored and influenced by Duchamp. Nurtured and encouraged from a young age by the likes of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams, Charles's contemporaries and collaborators later included Djuna Barnes, Parker Tyler, Pavel Tchelitchew, Man Ray, Peggy Guggenheim, Andre Breton, Cecil Beaton, Salvadore Dali, Jean Cocteau, William Burroughs, Ned Rorem, Joseph Cornell... the list goes on.

Charles did not consent to recite his poetry often. This recording (2000) is one of the few that exist. When Charles agreed to record, I asked him to include "Flag of Ecstasy" because of my personal interest in Duchamp. I was fascinated by Charles's words written specifically for the amusement of Duchamp, whom Charles greatly admired. At 92, his speech in the recording is slightly slurred, but his voice carries the dignity and depth that characterize all of his work, regardless of medium.

The music behind Charles's recitation is an atonal soundscape, my impressionistic reaction to the poem. There is nothing "Duchampian" in the logic or construction of this piece; it is simply a contemporary reaction to Duchamp as an individual (Charles's poem) accompanied by my abstract composition, which is designed to provoke but not distract the listener from the poem. To collaborate with Charles, a genuine living Surrealist, was an honor and a thrill indeed.

 

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Charles Henri Ford, "Flag of Ecstasy," published in View, vol. 5, no. 1 (March 1945), p. 4