Friday, November 13, 2009 2:04 PM
A. F. Moritz: 'Lines Written in Early Fall'
Judith Fitzgerald
In this month's issue of Poetry, Canada's brilliant Griffinian A. F. Moritz (b. 1947) leads off the rare and enrapturous riches with a gently probing think-piece, What Man Has Made of Man, containing the following dazzler of a paragraph which, ISTM, asks one of the few genuinely urgent questions confronting a truly human being in this, the closing of the first decade of our twenty-worst century:
Today, it seems to me, this isolation and communion question, as it relates to society and politics, has one formulation that is most important. Society certainly permits and in fact requires participation, but does it do so only at the cost of agreement to preordained structures and behaviours that are non-negotiable? In other words, can you only participate if you agree? Does society allow only certain forms of participation to be real, while others are basically illusions, distractions, games? For instance, are we required to work in the way the present economy dictates because otherwise society would collapse, while we're required to vote only to maintain the illusion we have true participation, an illusion without which we might revolt or despair and drop out, threatening the economy? Is the person who truly disagrees always thrust to the margins of social life?
Although Moritz soundly relies on poetry to support his observations and open-ended conclusions, he nonetheless provides an intelligent, coherent and reassuringly moving take on "what man has made of man," the phrase, BTW, William Wordsworth (1770-1850) inked in "Lines Written in Early Spring," making of Moritz's meditation one rewarding read worth the time it will take you to park your browser and view its bounty online. I guarantee it:
. . . The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
FWIW: A quick reminder to join Guernica Editions come this Sunday (Nov. 15th) commencing 2 PM for the launch of a quartet of quality titles: William Anselmi's Orvieto: Urbs vetus, Brian Day's Conjuring Jesus, Robert Flanagan's A Place in the World and The Trestler House by Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska. As if that weren't enough wonderfully essential stuff, the event @ Toronto's Bar Italia (583 College Street) also includes brief readings from poets Clara Blackwood, Catherine Black, Jim Johnstone and Desi Di Nardo (in the Guernica First Poets Series). Au plaisir de vous y voir . . . Sarà un vero piacere di vedervi . . . Be there or be square . . . Are you, M'Dear IOWists, in for one fab treat come next week . . . Watch this space for an extraodinary profile of Coach House Books's Susan Holbrook (Joy Is So Exhausting), the comin'-upper Dr. Thomas Dilworth describes as "one of the best living poets," a fact upon which I am certain, once you read and see, you shall indubitably agree . . . The Siegfried Sassoon Collection, in this week of Remembrance and Not-to-Be-Forgotten Heroes (including my own Daddy [RIP] who twice earned the DFC during WWII), now resides in its permanent virtual home @ the First World War Digital Collection alongside compendia the calibre of world-class work created by David Jones, Vera Brittain, Wilfred Owen, et.al.
IOW's Notable Quotable from Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886–1967): "I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest" (June 1917).
