In the preface to this opuscule on her friend, the poet Jean-Georges Lossier, Alice Rivaz presents her approach as “A modest attempt to identify the recurring topics and the spiritual orientation underlying his work from beginning to end.”

As early as 1946, Alice Rivaz published an article entitled ‘Poésie et vie intérieure’ in the Servir journal (27 June 1946), just as Jean-Georges Lossier received the Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Prize for his second collection Haute cité. This is how the novelist described Jean-Georges Lossier’s poetry,

A melodic variation of the same topic, contemplating life and death

and

channelling life through death and death through life by making them converse with one other, by opening a passage from one to the other, by mixing their waters, as Rilke did, and Crisinel too, closer to home.

Alice Rivaz was close to J-G. Lossier and they shared prolific correspondence spanning many decades.¹ She never stopped reading his poetry, which touched her deeply (cf. Traces de vie, p. 299). Forty years later, she wrote one last tribute to him. She gave a detailed analysis of his work and provided a welcome selection of texts for anyone wishing to discover the poet.

¹ See Alice Rivaz Jean-Georges Lossier, Pourquoi serions-nous heureux ? Correspondance 1945-1982, Zoé, 2008.