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For Dani
Because I tried to quote it to her whilst cabbaged.
I think I did quite well, given my state, but misquoting will never do any poem justice.
Jon Stallworthy also wrote The Trap, which affected me very much on first reading. In the same way horror or pornography does. It stands out in my memory alongside the paintings of Salidor Dali, Lord of the Flies and James Herbert's The Fog.
This one I read while older.
And being born in 1972, just appreciated for it's tone and cadence.
A Poem About Poems About Vietnam
The spotlights had you covered (thunder
in the wings). In the combat zones
and in the Circle, darkness. Under
the muzzles of the microphones
you opened fire, and a phalanx
of loudspeakers shook on the wall;
but all your cartridges were blanks
when you were at the Albert Hall.
Lord George Byron cared for Greece,
Auden and Cornford cared for Spain,
confronted bullets and disease
to make their poems' meaning plain;
but you - by what right did you wear
suffering like a service medal,
numbing the nerve that they laid bare,
when you were at the Albert Hall?
The poets of another time -
Owen with a rifle butt
between his paper and the slime,
Donne quitting her pillow to cut
a quill - knew tha in love and war
dispatches from the front are all.
We believe them, they were there,
when you were at the Albert Hall.
Poet, they whisper in their sleep
louder from underground than all
the mikes that hung upon your lips
when you were at the Albert Hall.
NB - Capital letters copied from the original. The Albert Hall is a large, prestigious and historical venue in London.
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