Skip to main content

CHRISTMAS POEM 2022

The secret is not to have a secret

The magic is to be magicless

The trick is to go without the tricks

The plan is to be avoided

The path is to be downtrodden

The lie is to be forgotten

The carnival is to be inverted

The lamb is to be converted

The killer is to be caressed

The dress is to be undressed

The cure is to be lost

The time is to be mis-told

The crime is to be lawful

The beauty is to be awful

The secret is to speak widely

The magic is to turn the tables

The trick is to be born in the stables

The plan is to go to shambles

The path is via the brambles

The lie is to stand in the open

The carnival is to roll the king

The dress is thorn this season

The lamb is the feast for a reason

The birth was clearly at night

The death was notably during day to day

This means something about lighting

Between the cracks, between the shrugs

Between the thighs, between the thugs,

Between the shimmering royal displays,

Comes a meagre passion play, starting

In the dull, disinterested, calamities.

 

DECEMBER 23, 2022


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

Michael Horovitz Has Died

Michael Horovitz  was a wonderful, funny, entertaining, intelligent, generous and visionary poet and a significant part of the British poetry scene post-war. His death is sad and a true loss, but his spirit and many projects and poems will live on. 

SWIFT REPORT 2021

My report will be brief this year - I am grateful to be alive. 2021 was a very tough year for a lot of people - and 2022 looks to be also very challenging. Up until December, 2021, I would have said the best of the year was keeping the Eyewear publishing company going so it could reach its 10th year (2022), and therefore keeping a small good team in work; and 100s of books in print. Personally, hiking in Northern Ireland/the North of Ireland, and doing wild swimming, and training with Al Beard, and Wimbledon, would have been summer highlights; plus great sporting events, and the English almost winning the Euros... Then, a few days before Christmas, I went into the hospital for heart failure; I have a large blood clot on my heart, and my heart was only working 17% or so. Now it is up to 22%. I am off work, and still seriously ill, on 15 or more tablets a day. My family is worried, it is a super worrying time. I am focused on recovery, doing what must be done, staying calm as possible. I