The Melbourne Literature Seminars

Some reflections on the current pandemic.

A spare biography can be found here http://www.philipstclair.com/biography

More about the poet here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/keith-s-wilson

Find out more about Muir and his work: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edwin-muir

I’ve only recently become acquainted with the American poet C.K.Williams, whose work negotiates a delicate balance between sharply focused observations of common ‘reality’ and a sense of half-glimpsed alternatives by which it is haunted. ‘Light’ is a classic example, poising vivid recollection of a visit to a bat-filled cave with the underworld visions of Dante’s Inferno. The bats focus the meditation, both as common images of life’s dark, uncanny side (think popular Halloween imagery, and then remember Halloween is the Eve of All Hallows, the traditional day for commemorating the dead) and as reminders of how our literary culture has also invested those uncanny realms with unsettling presences (think Dante, of course, but notice too how the bats’ ‘squeaking and squealing’ recall Homer’s ‘twittering shades’ of the dead).

A mediation on writing poetry, by way of apologising for not writing poetry. Poets play all sorts of games, especially with themselves.

One of Ireland’s great poets has just passed. Read more about Boland at

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/eavan-boland