Robert Girvan | Essays and Poetry 

Reflections and poems concerning some lines in W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” Introduction: Questions, Questions, into the Infinite Aire “Does poetry make nothing happen?” is admittedly an awkward sentence. One might say instead: Does poetry make something happen? Can poetry change the world? Can poetry improve the world? Must poetry improve the world? Many other questions are shaded by these shining questions. A few are: Are these the right questions? Should poetry

Peony Petals: The Call Beyond Politics Photo by Thea Harrison on Unsplash Several years ago, I was trying, and mostly failing, to write a poem about a political event, which, while important in political terms, is not important here. I turned around and noticed that a few peony petals had fallen on the floor from the vase behind me on the counter. I marvelled at how beautiful, even perfect, they were. Then I continued working. I struggled with increasingly futility the next

Nietzsche, Chamfort, Socrates, Jesus, and Blade Runner     Daily, the slings and arrows of outrageous - or really irritating - fortune arrive. How to respond? What to be - broken, bronzed, or radically open? I had occasion, quite by accident or perhaps serendipity, to reflect again on these questions recently. On Christmas Day, I reread the following quote in  The Gay Science , by Nietzsche, in Part Two, aphorism # 95, purporting to be the last words of the French writer Ch