Poems about Poetry
Tracks in the Private Country
by T. Wignesan
The memory in need
Is the implacable enemy of the creed,
Waits and watches its foe
The all-clawing frenzy on tip-toe;
Quiescent in the instant’s repose
The thud of flurried gnawing years evoke.
The poet in his solitary moments, spoke
Those whispered words, memory’s secret ear yoke.
His wares, his scares, ailments and balms
Suddenly at the oasis of his thirst, awoke
Transilluminating the hard wad of his private notes,
Clutching at the infant’s murmurous innocence
The clear innocuous dogma of cries;
While his immodestly preened notes of travesty
Hark back; and the first poem playfully struck
Teaches him now too late the laugh, the critic’s qualms.
Just as the poet had wandered away from childhood,
So will the child thwart the unspoilt man
And shyly, shyly he turns away from the poet
Coming in like a stray camp-follower to brood.
For who may ask which the supreme poet
The child’s sweet ineffable musings disrespect
While language etherises meanings proudly sown:
The title in two is halved – one the art, one, lone.
And the man, memory’s ill-begotten infant
Lurking round the corner, pranks the urgent moment
Or two – then restores the poet to the poem.
T. Wignesan
Copyright ©:
T. Wignesan, 1957 – First pub. in “Discus”, University of Frankfurt, 1960 (from the collection: Tracks of a Tramp. Kuala Lumpur-Singapore: 1961)
A few random poems:
- Федор Сологуб – Лиловато-розовый закат
- All Thats Not Love
- Robert Burns: The Winter It Is Past:
- Олег Григорьев – Кресло рассохлось
- Frijolita by Manolo Arriola
- Ольга Седакова – Госпожа и служанка
- you are there moon by Raj Arumugam
- Николай Языков – Виленскому (Не робко пей, товарищ мой)
- Николай Заболоцкий – Свадьба
- On Niobe (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Where We Live Now by Philip Levine
- And In Wonder And Amazement I Sing by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery by William Morris
- Михаил Кузмин – Туманный день пройдет уныло
- Tracks In The Private Country
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- For What As Easy by W H Auden
- Five Songs – II by W H Auden
- Fish in the Unruffled Lakes by W H Auden
- Eyes Look Into The Well by W H Auden
- Eyes Look Into The Well by W H Auden
- Edward Lear by W H Auden
- Doggerel by a Senior Citizen by W H Auden
- Deftly, Admiral, Cast Your Fly by W H Auden
- Two Songs for Hedli Anderson by W. H. Auden
- The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
- The More Loving One by W. H. Auden
- The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden
- September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden
- On the Circuit by W. H. Auden
- In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden
- In Memory of Sigmund Freud by W. H. Auden
- If I could tell you by W. H. Auden
- For Friends Only by W. H. Auden
- Epitaph on a Tyrant by W. H. Auden
- Death’s Echo by W H Auden
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
