13 op/positions and a poem for an era of crisis
A Coat
I made myself a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it
Wore it in the world’s eye
As though they’d wrought it
Song, let them take it
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.
W.B. Yeats
* Poetry dwells there where language has become self-conscious. An era of crisis by definition is an era of intense awareness. An era of crisis particularly welcomes poetry.
* I perceive poetry, to a certain degree, as a major act of humility: a poem is built upon that which eventually overpowers it. A ‘defeated’ or defeated nation might have immense possibilities for poetry.
* One of the major tasks of poetry is to defend the ‘anonymity’ of the artistic creation: we tend, mainly in an era of crisis, to become anonymous, to identify ourselves with anything that still insists on staying alive- a necessity for artistic production.
* I tend to perceive poetry as the revenge of language for the void between silence and the word. Its real depth is revealed only during a time of crisis.
* A poem is not done until it renounces everything else than itself- however, it hasn’t become poetry until it renounces itself welcoming that other poem that it’s already echoed between its lines. Renouncing oneself for the sake of a new self is one of the major challenges of the crisis period.
* Mind tends to feel uncomfortable when confronted to crisis. Mind tends to feel uncomfortable when confronted to poetry.
* The craftsmanship of a poet is judged, largely, by the ability to cope with mistakes. Surviving in an era of crisis largely depends upon this very skill.
* Crisis particularly welcomes disorientation and loss. You get lost in poetry too, often purposely never without orientation though.
* Language in an era of crisis tends to tell the truth but not in that which it expresses. Poetry always speaks the truth but not in that which it expresses. In a certain degree, the poetic language is, by definition, a language in crisis.
* Crisis could be overcome through that which is left behind after a long process of slow refinement. The poetic verse is but the cynical remain of an agonizing linguistic enterprise- the only that forces language to move on.
* A poetic composition usually averts completion. In advance, the poet knows by instinct that good is the poem that does not cooperate. Resistance typically characterizes crisis- could poetry profit from that?
* A poet, by definition, tries to remedy the self by bleeding someone else’s woods. Humility and compassion are, by definition, the only remedies for a large-scale crisis.
* I am an iconoclast madly in love with images. Every poet ‑in crisis- is.
