Category: The use of Language
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Wild Honey UK 2020
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This poem above is actually a very loose translation of “Wild Honey” by the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. The slightly altered title here is an acknowledgement of just how loose the translation is. The poem’s original was written (I think) in 1933. Stalin had been in power for around a decade and his…
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Who’s Human ?
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The quote towards the end of this new poem is from “Requiem” by the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, translated by A.S. Kline, 2005. She was writing of the Stalinist purges. Her poem of witness was not published until decades later, in her old age.… continue reading
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Word Play
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“What is the purpose of poetry ?” I ask myself. Sometimes I find this question simple to answer. And sometimes the answer itself is simple. The purpose of poetry is to work.… continue reading
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I See Everywhere the False
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I thought this was true in 2014, when it was written. I did not know then that the truth can become truer.… continue reading
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To Stand upon the Earth
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This is the last of a daily succession of poems I’ve been uploading “from our seclusion.” They are all excerpts from two series of poems I wrote in the 1990’s, one on Martin Buber’s concept of I-Thou, the other on Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow. They belong together, I think, in some way. The…
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The Deployment of Force
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Still on the subject of feet and their deployment, I ask myself this question : where am I to stand in the hallways of The Lie ? Here is my answer : on the hyphen between I and Thou, my surfboard in the endless storm.… continue reading