13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) Pierre Reverdy was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism.

He was born in Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse and Narbonne.

Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910. It was there, at the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara.

For sixteen years, Reverdy lived for his writing. His companions were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Juan Gris and others. Because of his association with these painters, he has been called a Cubist poet, as conventional structure was eliminated in his poesie brut ('raw poetry'), much as the painters cut away surface appearance to bring through the underlying forms. He disavowed the label of Cubist poet, however, calling it a 'ridiculous term'. (See Richard L. Admussen's 1969 essay 'Nord-Sud and Cubist Poetry.' Reverdy went beyond Cubist desolation to express a profound spiritual doubt and his sense of mystery in the universe forever beyond his understanding.

These were the years in which surrealism took flight and Reverdy partly inspired it. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time," and Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."

In 1917, together with Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and then surrealist contributions. It continued until 1918.

Reclusive by nature, Reverdy began to distance himself from these circles, and in 1926, at the age of 37, he left Paris, converted to Catholicism and went to live in Solesmes, home of the great St. Peter's Abbey. He stayed there until his death in 1960. During this time he wrote several collections including Sources du vent, Ferraille and Le Chant des morts. Besides Reverdy published two volumes containing critical matter (reflections on literature mingled with aphorisms) entitled En vrac and Le livre de mon bord.

Ron Padgett did this well known English translation of "For the Moment" from the French.

Reverdy is celebrated in the poem by Frank O'Hara, "A Step Away From Them," excepted below:

A glass of papaya juice
and back to work. My heart is in my
pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.

sources:
wikipedia
poetryconnection.net