Tag Archives: poetry

LADY, WEEPING AT THE CROSSROADS by W.H. Auden

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“Lady, weeping at the crossroads Would you meet your love In the twilight with his greyhounds, And the hawk on his glove?   Bribe the birds then on the branches, Bribe them to be dumb, Stare the hot sun out … Continue reading →

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Shadow Before Equinox

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Symbol Reader

 1. “Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just … Continue reading →

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“The Goddess“ by Denise Levertov

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Paul Gauguin, “The Seed of the Areoi”   THE GODDESS, by Denise Levertov “She in whose lip service I passed my time, whose name I knew, but not her face, came upon me where I lay in Lie Castle! Flung … Continue reading →

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Meditation on the Mystery of Flowers

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Salvador Dali, “Meditative Rose”  I. Remy de Gourmont, “Litanies of the Rose” “Rose with dark eyes,  mirror of your nothingness,  rose with dark eyes, make us believe in the mystery, hypocrite flower, flower of silence.   Rose the colour of pure … Continue reading →

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The Secrets of the Odyssey (9): Leucothea in the Sea of Space and Time

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Symbol Reader

The climax of the Odyssey is the hero’s arrival in Ithaca but a harbinger of that pivotal moment is his sojourn on the island of Scheria (Phaecia), which I have written about here. William Blake also connected these two events, … Continue reading →

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The Flowers

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Goddess Flora   “The Flowers” by Stéphane Mallarmé (translated by Henry Weinfield) “From golden showers of the ancient skies, On the first day, and the eternal snow of stars, You once unfastened giant calyxes For the young earth still innocent … Continue reading →

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White Magic

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“Standing before the mirror of silence with her hands in her hair, Barbara pours into her glass body silver droplets of her voice. And then like a jar she fills with light and glasslike filters stars through herself and the … Continue reading →

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Poetic Genesis

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Symbol Reader

The poetry of Dylan Thomas is deep, passionate, sensual, musical, forceful and simply magical to me. I remember I was awe-struck when I first read “The Force That Through the Green Fuse” at an English literature class. This year we … Continue reading →

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Where No Wolf Tracks Could Be Found

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Symbol Reader

BALANCE By Adam Zagajewski, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh I watched the arctic landscape from above and thought of nothing, lovely nothing. I observed white canopies of clouds, vast expanses where no wolf tracks could be found. I … Continue reading →

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Nike Who Hesitates

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Titanic Engineers’ Memorial, Southampton, featuring Goddess Nike Nike of Warsaw, monument to Polish war heroes I love poetry because in a few verses it is able to condense more meaning than a long essay and usually does so more beautifully. … Continue reading →

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