Tag: redemption

poetry appreciation

listening to our breathing

Apr 9, 2020 #apocalypse, #corona virus, #Covid 19, #destruction, #Edwin Muir, #end of days, #holocaust, #hope, #Muir, #natural world, #nature, #nuclear war, #redemption, #Revelation, #salvation, #The Horses by Lucy Crispin

There is good stuff in amongst all the strangeness at the moment, as a lot of people are noting. Some are doing so with a vim and perkiness which I find quite annoying—I rarely find Uplift uplifting—but it’s good to hear the quieter, less trumpety tales. And to notice things, too. Driving up to Scotland last week I was moved to see an oystercatcher walking across the M6 in front of me. I’m kinda glad the world is getting a rest from us.

‘The Horses‘ by Edwin Muir is one of the poems which has been echoing round my mind these last few weeks. Though it offers a post-apocalyptic vision it’s not an unmitigatedly doomy one, and I don’t offer it with a gloomy sense of prophecy. Rather, it’s because I’ve been aware of how strange and lovely I am finding the current silence, or relative silence, on my (rare and legitimate, guv’nor) sorties into the outside world. And silence is what Muir’s poem opens with. (Here are a couple of readings of it, too, one much more fruity and declamatory than the other. See what you think.)

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poetry appreciation

the possibility of miracle

Mar 5, 2020 #Clarke, #compassion, #daffodils, #depression, #Gillian Clarke, #healing, #insane, #insanity, #madness, #miracle, #poem, #poetry, #redemption, #Schindler, #spring, #tenderness, #Wordsworth by Lucy Crispin

I’m writing this at Gladstone’s Library in North Wales. It’s St David’s Day in 3 days’ time (it’ll be in the rear view mirror by the time this goes live) and a watery nearly-spring sunshine is lifting the air outside. How fitting, then, to read ‘Miracle on St David’s Day’ by Gillian Clarke, a wonderful Welsh poet, about springs of different sorts and the magic wrought by poetry. Be moved by this lovely poem here.

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