Sublime

long poem I love by the Canadian writer Anne Carson, called ‘The Glass Essay’.

As Sappho says:

To stop breathing is bad.

So the gods judge.

For they do not stop breathing

Surely the life of a girl can’t be collateral?

Surely the gods don’t think like that?

How do gods think?

Does it all make sense to them — war? Clouds? Fakery? People in flames?

Do they like a good war show? Cover their eyes

at the bloody parts?

Poor gods!

We’re beyond that.

We don’t cover our eyes anymore, do we — we mortals, we creatures of a day?

We’re mo

Akhmatova never finished Macbeth although

she liked to quote the hero saying people

in my homeland die faster than

the flowers on their hats.