”ROBERT HASS: Often enough when a thing is seen clearly, there is a sense of absence about it…as if, the more palpable it is, the more some immense subterranean displacement seems to be working in it ; as if at the point of truest observation the visible and the invisible exerted enormous counter-pressure.” quote from Jan Swicky, ”What Is Lyric Philosophy,” ALKIBIADES’ LOVE, 13.
In the dense language
of The Book of Disquiet
Pessoa compares
his self to empty
bottles on a shelf. Summer
wanes, the tedium
is thick with longing
to be himself. Nostalgia
for nothing, he says.
A late fly distracts
me from the literature.
Its buzz is profound.
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Author: Tom D'Evelyn
Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites.
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