Gorgeous poem, the last lines of which move me so. And your reactions to the essay, yes. Generalization is the opposite of generosity, yes. To question how we have become so hardened, yes. And the Kovolenko line, "Remember how we used to wonder rather than know?", YES! Thank you so much for your own generosity.
Love, love love anything poetic about birds, and your beautiful comment about the stillness of looking especially resonates. Have you read The Slain Birds by Michael Longley?
Characteristically thoughtful and articulate. I was one of the 800 or so people who commented on Walther's piece in the Times, which struck me as being misguided in exactly the ways you develop here. He condemns all of contemporary poetry without showing that he has even a passing acquaintance with any particular contemporary poets. I have a lot more respect for readers like yourself, who focus patient attention on individual poems and explore what those poems make happen in their mind.
Gorgeous poem, the last lines of which move me so. And your reactions to the essay, yes. Generalization is the opposite of generosity, yes. To question how we have become so hardened, yes. And the Kovolenko line, "Remember how we used to wonder rather than know?", YES! Thank you so much for your own generosity.
Love, love love anything poetic about birds, and your beautiful comment about the stillness of looking especially resonates. Have you read The Slain Birds by Michael Longley?
I’m enraptured by this very short poem in it:
Eyelid
Amelia opens the tawny owl’s eyelid
And finds a concentration of the night
Characteristically thoughtful and articulate. I was one of the 800 or so people who commented on Walther's piece in the Times, which struck me as being misguided in exactly the ways you develop here. He condemns all of contemporary poetry without showing that he has even a passing acquaintance with any particular contemporary poets. I have a lot more respect for readers like yourself, who focus patient attention on individual poems and explore what those poems make happen in their mind.
Beautiful poem, & beautiful reflection, as always! Thank you for this.