John Jr.’s Reviews > Moscow in the Plague Year: Poems > Status Update

“Some fragrances / are like commands” (p. 196). “Accomplishing the poem, what / else can the poet do but die?” (p. 208). “Owlets need the night, / and sleepless people need their sleeplessness” (p. 225).

"Some fragrances
are like commands." [page 196]

Those entering the world clench small hands tight:
they’re like aggressors, bent upon attack!
Those entering the earth have open palms—
all of our regiments got smashed to bits!

[from another set called “Four-Liners”]

Battling to get out of passion’s rut,
a day will dawn on which I’ll say: ‘No loving!’
Where, in the calendar of centuries,
are you, though, day on which I’ll say: ‘No poems!’?
[from a set called “Four-Liners”]

Distractions can be destructive. A poem of a few hundred lines came to Coleridge in a dream. When he awoke, he remembered it and began writing it down. Then a neighbor dropped in. By the time he left, Coleridge could no longer remember the rest of the poem. This was the origin of “Kubla Khan,” which is only a few dozen lines in length.

“Poems for Sonechka,” No. 9:

Don’t lose your temper, angel from Heaven,
if it turns out that the truth was a lie.
People don’t look to the wind for straight answers,
nightingales singing can distort the truth.

Missing someone? Marina Tsvetaeva knew the feeling:
No peace for me until I see,
no peace until I hear,
no peace until I catch your gaze,
until I hear your words.