Saturday, September 20, 2008

In the Beginning Was the Word:

An ode to a metre of my bookcase, and a thank you to my own personal divine being, the Lord of Words, the bringer of support and love and comfort and healing (amongst other things).

Nineteen eighty-four. A bright shiny morning. The Iliad:
In the land of heroes, Ulysses travels with Herodotus.

See the portable atheist, with a paperback bible (with apocrypha)
and the end of faith: this way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen.

The trouble with Islam today: rock’n’roll, the Lucifer effect,
the soccer war.
The making of Americans.
The Emperor, the Shah of Shahs.

These are letters from the Earth,
these are selected poems, selected poems,
these are the complete sonnets and poems,
this is a sorrow beyond dreams,
this is life, a user’s manual,
this is the unknown story.

Another day of life. Women as lovers:
perfume.
Lust.
Greed.

Stick out your tongue.
Better never to have been.
Play Captain Corelli’s mandolin.

4 comments:

Montag said...

Odysseus sails;
Penelope waits.
Still unperturbed flows the Sea.

Anonymous said...

Love this. Makes me want to have ago too.

The latest Ali Smith is out very soon. I nabbed an advance copy at a book festival yesterday : ) I know you don't get on with the novels, but there are some really good shorts in there. I think I let you off the hook too soon in our previous discussion, as mediated by Signs, this time I won't let you get off so lightly...

Anna MR said...

For you, most esteemed Montag, another story...

Penelope Gives Up Waiting

Unraveling her tapestries, thread by thread, she creates
a shimmering sea of yarn, and sets sail.
She calls Calypso: "You can keep him". "Can't", she says. "I've gone sailing."
Still unperturbed flows the Sea.


Lovely, as always, to have you here.

x

Anna MR said...

Gael - so very glad you liked it. Go, go, have a go, and tell me when you're done so I can come and read, too.

But oh dear oh dear oh dear. Are we to fall out again most heinously, over Ali S.? Look - for you, okay, and for no other reason whatsoever, I promise I will have a look at the shorts if and when I come across them. But what am I to say if they annoy me to bits? I'll just bite my lip and keyboard and, and, I don't know what the hell I'll say. We can agree to disagree, sweet Gael, or it can be book reviews at dawn...

Whichever way it goes, though, that's happily still far into the future, and in the meantime, it's lovely to see you. My apologies for leaving you here for an aeon and a half. Hope all is well over your way.

x