[New-Poetry] in the astronaut’s helmet

[JforJames at aol.com]

I just put this up on blog, _http://ursprache.blogspot.com/_ 
(http://ursprache.blogspot.com/)  . 
-- 
I seem to be one of the last authors, not counting theologians, to refer  now 
and then to the notion of a “spiritual life.” In our day, we confine  
ourselves at the best of times to discussing the imagination. The word  “imagination”
 is beautiful and vast, but it doesn’t hold everything. Some people  look at 
me suspiciously for this very reason; they think I must be a  reactionary, or 
a double-dyed conservative at the very least. I open myself to  ridicule. 
Progressive circles condemn me, or at least look at me askance.  Conservative 
enclaves likewise fail to understand what I’m talking about. Poets  a generation 
younger keep their distance. Only a certain young Spanish poet told  me in 
Barcelona that my essays perhaps signal that postmodern irony may be  conquered 
one day. But what is the spirit, the spiritual life? If only I were up  to 
defining such things! Robert Musil says that the spirit synthesizes intellect  and 
emotion. It’s a good working definition, for all its concision. 
In the case of poetry, literature, it’s simpler to say—theologians know a  
thing or two about this—what the spirit isn’t. It’s not psychoanalytic any 
more  than it’s behavioral, sociological, or political. It is holistic, and in it 
are  reflected, as in the astronaut’s helmet, the earth, the stars, and a 
human face.  
These are difficult and dangerous considerations. 
—Adam  Zagajewski, “Dangerous Considerations: A Notebook,” translated by 
Clare  Cavenaugh, Poetry, Oct. 2007





**************************************See AOL's top rated recipes 
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20071215/a58bcfce/attachment.html