Around me, the unseen miracle

Of the past: the birds in the tree—the hills—the clouds—the people passing by,

I am at the centre of my time

                And they are all in the past

What stranger miracles are there?

After Walt Whitman, Miracles

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In Praise of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution

The words in German are from a revised version of Schiller’s Poem "An die Freude" Ode to Joy. I’ve paraphrased them in English to form the first four lines of my poem.

Part of Schilller’s poem formed the basis  of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, an extract of which, was adopted by the European Union, on the grounds that ...

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During the American Civil War, which ended in 1866, Walt Whitman worked as a clerk in Washington, DC. For a period of three years, he cared for soldiers, dressing their wounds, and comforting the injured.

His 1865 publication of poetry, Drum-Taps, which drew from his experiences in the civil war, includes, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman’s elegy for President Lincoln.

I ...

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Written in March 2023: one year on.

(...sees races, eras, dates, generations,

The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together"

Walt Whitman, Kosmos)

Only fragile glass

                                   holds the cold

                                                                night's times at bay:

each star above the beech

owning its mo...

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