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The Ghosts of February
| Article
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15601 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1989 |
645 Words |
| Author
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John Greening
John Greening is a widely published poet residing in
Huntingdon, England. |
Carter's Descent
(February 1924)
To come down these sixteen steps
holding the keys, the sole keys,
and hearing the reverberation from
that heavy iron grille; to know
that not even the Times correspondent
can follow me here . . .
To come down
and enter the darkness and to see
through the darkness a cracked lid
still suspended above that
most public, most secret mask, not
shaped to reflect either the lunacy
of a heretic predecessor or a star-
blind sacerdotage, but to glow
below the horizon of the sun-disc
modestly--no papyri, no press! . . .
To come down where everyone has appeared
to understand why their hands must be tied,
their heads bowed, their tongues slit--
why everything (chariot, ostrich feather
fan, mere child's toy) must be restrung
along my endless, exact, but unbreakable lines. . .
To come down where I have felt
alive and in command as if
it had been my own kingdom and I
liberated from fake courtesies
(permission denied/permission granted),
gilded wooden minds, hollow talkers . . .
To come down and handle a reed basket
of three thousand years ago, and forget
the three thousand unanswered letters
in my identical
...
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