Poem by Mark Yakich

Eyewear, poised on the brink of British Summer Time, is pleased to welcome Mark Yakich (pictured). Yakich has worked in the European Parliament and has degrees in political science, West European studies, and poetry - always a promising mix. He is the author of Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross (National Poetry Series, Penguin 2004) and The Making of Collateral Beauty (Snowbound Chapbook Award, Tupelo 2006).

His latest collection, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, was released this week by Penguin, so it seemed like a particularly apt moment to feature his writing. Mark lives in New Orleans.

Ecclesiastes, reduced to

The telescope ascends
And I am buried here in the middle

Of some damn book the observatory
At the top of the hill contains

Its bubble of certainty I look up
And feel like a weed a wind slips through

My hair and I don’t feel it but I know
It’s there and there’s no

Need anymore
To believe in the stars

poem by Mark Yakich

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

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In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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