Sorescu

My latest poem.  English version in progress.

Sorescu (for the English audience) is one of the most extraordinary Romanian poets.  For a quick guide: Sorescu on the Poetry Foundation

A poem is an act of persuasion - Kooser

"...a few poems that will endure..."

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Does it matter, I ask?

 “The freedom of the writer is primarily the freedom not to have to speak within a language others have created for you.”

Dag Solstad

Botanical Garden St. Louis July 2016

I like Kooser

The sweetest little poem by Kooser from "Splitting an order":

"Grandfather

A breeze chased his pipe smoke

out over the river; and later he followed

carrying all the tackle."

How perfect this is.

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures", said Voltaire.  

Why is that?  

I am speculating that our ability to prospect what's possible must be somehow be linked to that deep brain region responsible for pleasure.  We respond, I believe, to the projection of wants the same way we do to sweets, money or sex.  

What we want must be connected, through a mysterious link, to what we need.  And so the ingrained wisdom of our biology tells us what is good for us by rewarding us with pleasure even when we fantasize about it. 

The same way, I believe, as to when we "like to eat" something sweet when our blood sugar is low.