The poet’s profession I
(for Richard Burdett) What does it matter if a poem is sad? Should one give voice to rock, to the iron heart of the earth? –err in attributing a storm of feeling to wind and tears to a flood of…
Category The poet’s profession
The poet’s profession II
(for Philip Henry Jones) The lens of a poem challenges the dimensions of time in including lines within lines, in conjuring up the work of the past to partake of the present. A poet locates life to one side in…
The poet’s profession III
(Orpheus (Maquette I) by Barbara Hepworth, 1956) (for Margriet Boleij) Where does the muse come from? Not from Bacchus in my case. I suck inspiration from music and tune the strings correctly so that in chanting I tell the truth.…
The poet’s profession IV
(for Daniel Huws) Perspective changes in the sight of a poet with her eyes as windows on the world and the door of her tongue inviting or refusing entry to a new habitat. She sets the rood screen of a…
The poet’s profession V
(for Alun Gwynedd Jones) The poet sees stars full of language and paints them on the darkness of old ragged paper and draws trees in Chinese script, restricting nature within the frame of a poem. She holds a silent conversation…
The poet’s profession VI
(for Philip Henry Jones) How can one justify writing a lyrical poem after Auschwitz? After rehearsing the rituals of the measures, after beating her wings against the bars of her cage, kneeling and begging for understanding, then gaining confidence to…