The USSR has a history of crushing dissent, in the spring. One need only think of Prague. And, tanks sent from Moscow rolled into Budapest too. In both cities, in both countries, proud rebels opposed the moves. But the tanks crushed in the end. Russia is not the USSR, as I have been arguing, but since its Winter Games it has been playing a very aggressive sort of game with geo-politics. I think the reason is the Black Sea Fleet, and the emotive, and real, linguistic and ethnic ties between Russia proper and Crimea. President Putin, playing to the home crowd, would become a great iron man if he took back the Crimea. I fear he may just try. I am not sure what could or would stop him, short of thermo-nuclear threat, or severe economic sanctions. This is the closest the world has been on the brink of world war since before 1989 - in a quarter century. I don't think it is time to duck and dive just yet. But this is serious.
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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