There's something immensely moving about the way the world is being lifted by the Irish Spring that is Obama's election victory. And now, a hit song about Obama being Irish.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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At that time in my learning, after seven years studying Gaelic texts in translation that constituted the course work of real life bards, i had just grasped the significance of the three methods of extemporised composition which were took on by the trainee filidh poets, in the eighth year of study. Imbas foronsai - manifestation of good knowledge which illuminates - which is like the Frost notion of turning up on the page not knowing what will be created, and at the end of the extemprised session, some knowledge we have not articulated and firm in the consciousness, articulates itself via the medium of ourselves, into print. Like Columbo at the end of the show drawing all the strands of his plodding into a coherent accurate narrative of events, getting at the truth of things. The prophetic side of a poets practice, in efect. And this live version, infused Hope into me, as the wording is flawless, the metrical structure of the names, O'Leary, O'Reily, O'Hare and O'Hara, there's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama -- there is some deeply poetic yet invisible proof that, yes, yes, this is right, and now i can come out of the woods and show my hand, cheerlead for this man. For myself first i might add, as riding this wave of Hope, prior to him winning, could only be just a decision to err on the side of Hope.
I reasoned that the guy being far more eloquent and cleverer than his opponents, once in the hot seat, what has happened, would happen. Whilst not explicitly prophecying he would get in, i did all i could as a cheerleader to effect this outcome, Live Version
love and peace