Writers In Performance Series – Image by kenne
In his book, The Demon and The Angel, Edward Hirsch wrote of Federico Garcia Lorca believing that when the duende (the mysterious power of creativity that results in a work of art)) is present in poetry, the poet can be sure of being loved and understood. The duende was diffidently present last Thursday when Hirsch read from his latest publication, The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems. The reading was followed by a Q & A session. For Hirsch, life, and therefore his poetry, is all about relationships:
Tonight when I knelt down next to our cat, Zooey,
And put my fingers into her clean cat’s mouth,
And rubbed her swollen belly that will never know kittens,
And watched her wriggle onto her side, pawing the air,
And listened to her solemn little squeals of delight,
I was thinking about the poet, Christopher Smart,
Who wanted to kneel down and pray without ceasing
In everyone of the splintered London streets,
— from “Wild Gratitude”
kenne
Kenne Turner, Edward Hirsch & Dave Parsons – Seventeen Years Out
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