Tag: despair

poetry appreciation

the school in which we learn

Apr 23, 2020 #April, #Calmly We Walk, #death, #Delmore Schwartz, #depression, #despair, #dread, #fear, #grief, #meaning, #mindful, #mindfulness, #mortality, #poem, #poetry, #presence, #present, #Schwartz, #spring, #time, #time is the fire in which we burn, #time is the school in which we learn by Lucy Crispin

I’ve no idea how well known this poem is, but it’s relatively new to me, and its refrains have been pulsing their steady rhythm through me for the last week or so. So here it is: ‘Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day‘ by Delmore Schwartz.

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poetry appreciation

one of those lanterns

Feb 27, 2020 #Berry, #Clive James, #darkness, #dear, #despair, #hope, #hopeful, #light, #optimistic, #to know the dark, #wendell berry by Lucy Crispin

It might seem a bit strange to claim “lantern-hood ” for this poem, which insists on the necessity of experiencing the dark “properly”; that is to say, without light. But it’s true. This short piece by Wendell Berry (like a lot of his stuff) shines a light for me, and helps me carry on walking. Read it here.

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poetry appreciation

a prodigal thing

Feb 20, 2020 #courage, #depression, #despair, #emotions, #feelings, #happiness, #happy, #hope, #Jane Kenyon, #joy, #love, #rejoice by Lucy Crispin

Given the state of the world at the moment, it’s perhaps not surprising that there’s a plethora of books about with titles like The Happiness Project, The Happy Life Formula and Happiness: a Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. Hmmmm. Sounds like it might be a lot of work, even if you do buy into the idea that we can make ourselves feel any given way.

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poetry appreciation

westward, look…

Jan 16, 2020 #Arthur Hugh Clough, #Clough, #despair, #doubt, #faith, #hope, #poem, #poetry, #Say not the struggle nought availeth, #Victorian by Lucy Crispin

I left you last week with the promise of handrails and lifelines. Ta-daa! Here they are: ‘Say not the struggle nought availeth’, another poem straight out of the C19th’s death-throes-of-faith anguish which has, however, long performed the handrail/lifeline functions for me. You can read the poem here and or last week’s reader can read it for you here. Alternatively, Derek Jacobi reads it here; I much prefer his reading but could do without the music. The poem is there to create the mood all by its little self, after all. However… See what you think.

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poetry appreciation

handrails and lifelines and emergency lanterns

Jan 9, 2020 #Arnold, #despair, #doubt, #Dover Beach, #faith, #fear, #hope, #Matthew Arnold, #melancholy, #poem, #poetry, #sadness, #The Buried Life, #trust by Lucy Crispin

In an article in The Times in 2016 Libby Purves wrote of how ‘[p]eople have been through everything before us and some, by great grace, have recorded it with undying power. English-speakers are particularly lucky,’ she continued, ‘since some of the very best have done this in our fabulously hybrid, magpie language… [Poets] have crafted handrails and lifelines and emergency lanterns. They reassure us that others walked this hard trail and lived to express it’.

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