Poetry pressed out by pain
Poetry is one of the strongest channels for expressing pain, and I liked the use of the word 'pressed'. It...
Freedom gained?
What is freedom? Options? Room for manoeuvre? Time? Carte blanche and blank cheques? Absence of censorship? Self-mastery? Purpose?
Recently I’ve...
To charm, to change …
Odysseus is a tricky hero, part noble, upstanding and brave, part slippery, trickery, too-clever-by-half. He is a compelling orator, and...
The poet’s role
I am interested in ideas about the role and nature of poetry, and have featured a number on WritingRedux. Featuring...
A poem begins
This lovely comment by one of America’s finest and most beloved poets, Robert Frost, on the origins of poems –...
Beginnings
According to Adam Nicolson, some of the earliest poems were found in Sumer in cuneiform, dating from nearly two thousand...
On poetry and human feeling
Apart from pointing me to some translations of Catullus that may propel to me a new level of human feeling,...
Gift-bearing ambassadorial winds
Having a love of Persian poetry, known only through translation, and of Chinese poetry, engaged with tentatively and carefully in...
Poetry as plough
Elsewhere Mandelstam connects poetry to recall. Here it is a time-turning plough, bringing the deepest layers of time to the...
Poetry as recall
Slowly I’m building a collection of quotations defining poetry. With a few more in the bag, we can lay them...
Fine writing, fine doing
My earliest impressions of Keats were as a languishing poetic type, not a man of action. Now, after getting to...
Wine and poetry
Wine as a perfect metaphor for poetry, with the same nature, alchemy and effects. Both can make you heady, or...
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