THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

I have come to think that, of all the moral, ethical, religious, spiritual, and philosophical precepts, none is more extraordinary, radical, or powerful, than forgiveness. Forget love - love comes, at least sometimes, naturally. To forgive is the most difficult thing we can ever do. I don't mean to forgive someone for stepping on our big toe (though that hurts) - but to forgive the unforgivable. To forgive murder, rape, incest, hate, racism, war, slaughter, torture, evil.

In the past, only kings and mighty rulers could pardon the guilty - what would otherwise be called the unpardonable. Pardoning the innocent makes no sense. The true power is to unshackle and accept the criminal, the guilty. It's an almost impossible task. It disgusts every fibre of our being, the being that calls for punishment, to destroy our enemies.

It is, of course, the central idea of Christ's vision for humanity, and the promise he claims he can make on behalf of his Father. But even if one is an atheist, or holds to another creed or faith, the asking to forgive is obviously gut-wrenching. It turns our life into a great powerhouse of potential - it means, we have the power to act as kings - not to overlook, encourage, celebrate, or trivialise - the evildoer - but to forgive them, nonetheless.

You can see this in action, from time to time, when people are gunned down at worship, for example in America - rather than emerging from the tragedy angry and hate-filled, they state right away, for the cameras, and to the world, that they love and forgive the killer. That's power. That's more than love - that's a greatness that surpasses any thing an evil person themselves could ever do.

We must all learn to forgive ourselves, but most vitally, we must seek to reclaim the power to forgive for our causes, communities, and concerns. There is a cancel culture now that has a hashtag for every way someone can be called out, attacked, hated, blamed, accused, and shunned - but where are the hashtags for redemption? For forgiving?

The problem, the sickness, at the core of our current social media landscapes, is that there is rage, and undeniable hunger for justice - punishment happens, and can happen instantly - but people are not allowed a way back. There's no recipe for redemption, penitence, or pardon. Once blamed, once demonised, the human is made un-human, and the pointing finger of hate moves on.

This isn't to say that truths should be buried, experiences denied, evil people allowed to get away with predation, and other sins - but it is to say that the conversation is only half the human equation. And that's a powerful flaw.

We're potential kings, the masters of how we judge, and how we forgive. A king who only condemns, and never pardons, is only half a ruler. Compassion, and excessive generosity of spirit - is the measure of the truly great.

I call on our societies, our people, to go the extra mile, and move towards trying to rise to the higher place, to the great chair where all may sit in judgement, and then, in a miraculous act of grace, and charity - let the hating end.

CLIVE WILMER'S THOM GUNN SELECTED POEMS IS A MUST-READ

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

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

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...".

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

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