<\/p>\n
Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m getting a little concerned about the state of the world,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n \u2018Only now?\u2019 Patrice asked. \u2018There have been grounds for concern since round about 1914.\u2019<\/p>\n It would be difficult to find two people whose temperament and intellectual method are more different than Dimitri and Patrice.<\/p>\n Dimitri is tall, thin, acerbic and a child of the 1960s who has never quite freed himself from the notion that Jim Morrison might actually have been a half-decent poet.<\/p>\n Patrice is short, round, and anxious, and also a child of the sixties \u2013 but he was studying Mao and Marcuse when others were making love not war.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s got worse since last week,\u2019 Dimitri said, \u2018and not just the pandemic \u2013 what about the forest fires.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018If I may,\u2019 Rami began, in her characteristically courteous way (courtesy not to be confused with timidity), \u2018the global state of things isn\u2019t new. In one generation, we\u2019ve experienced war and famine in Africa, and the conflicts have been mostly about who could steal the most.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Very true,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018but doesn\u2019t this just highlight the redundancy of art? Poetry isn\u2019t going to put out the forest fires or find a cure for Covid.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018I think, perhaps, that\u2019s a problematic line,\u2019 I said. \u2018We run a literary magazine.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Two possible responses,\u2019 Patrice said. Patrice has been unusually voluble this week, having gone off-line mid-debate at our last Zoom meeting. \u2018The first is that art makes catastrophe more bearable, and the second is that bearing testimony to truth and common sense is especially important in the midst of crisis.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018I suppose you have a point, Patrice,\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018The world was already well on the way to hell in a handbasket when Ringo advertised the joys of living in a yellow submarine.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018That\u2019s not entirely persuasive,\u2019 Kim said.<\/p>\n \u2018I think, perhaps, the underlying theme is that great art may be forged in the furnace of misfortune,\u2019 I said. \u2018The sixties were bleak as well as swinging \u2013 nuclear war being just a hair\u2019s breadth away, and so on.\u2019<\/p>\n True,\u2019 Kim said. \u2018Longfellow\u2019s middle years were shattered by the slaughter of the Civil War.\u2019<\/p>\n Kim\u2019s doctoral thesis examined the metrical innovation of late Longfellow. I think everyone should be allowed to trot out their specialist subject from time to time \u2013 it makes those years of study seem worthwhile.<\/p>\n \u2018His response was simple but effective,\u2019 she added, quoting:<\/p>\n Were half the power, that fills the world with terror, <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, <\/em><\/p>\n Given to redeem the human mind from error, <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were no need of arsenals or forts: <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018But how was he on forest fires?\u2019 Dimitri asked, rather dryly.<\/p>\n \u2018Quite sound, as it happens,\u2019 Kim said, quoting again. \u2018\u201cHe\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0greatest\u00a0artist,\u00a0then, \/ Whether\u00a0of\u00a0pencil\u00a0or\u00a0of\u00a0pen, \/ Who\u00a0follows\u00a0Nature.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>And he commends the one \u201cwho\u00a0sets\u00a0his\u00a0willing\u00a0feet \/ In\u00a0Nature’s\u00a0footprints,\u00a0light\u00a0and\u00a0fleet, \/ \u2018Nature is fickle sometimes,\u2019 Dimitri persisted.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s only fickle because humans have misbehaved,\u2019 I said. \u2018If I remember correctly, Longfellow was sceptical about \u201ccunning alchemists\u201d who tried to replicate the natural world.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018The trick, Dimitri, is to remember that catastrophe has been ever with us,\u2019 Patrice remarked \u2013 rather unexpectedly, I thought.<\/p>\n \u2018And famine is more often than not followed by plenty,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n \u2018If I can slip in another quote,\u2019 Kim said, perhaps gratified to find that her doctoral subject was unexpectedly topical,<\/p>\n \u2018Turn,\u00a0turn,\u00a0my\u00a0wheel!\u00a0\u00a0All\u00a0life\u00a0is\u00a0brief; \u2018Not exactly encouraging, though, is it?\u2019 Dimitri said, his low spirits resolutely resisting a collective effort to lighten the mood.<\/p>\n \u2018Well, think of it in a different way,\u2019 Patrice said. \u2018When you find yourself in times of trouble . . . you know . . . Let it be.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Oh Yes, indeed, Dimitri, let it be!\u2019 I agreed with a fervor that may have verged on impatience.<\/p>\n \u2018Perhaps we could have an issue devoted to Longfellow,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n \u2018Or the Beatles, maybe,\u2019 Dimitri replied, and for the first time his tone seemed almost on the sunny side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine. \u2018I\u2019m getting a little concerned about the state of the world,\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018Only now?\u2019 Patrice asked. \u2018There have been grounds for concern since round about 1914.\u2019 It would be difficult to find two people whose temperament and intellectual method are more different than Dimitri and Patrice. 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\nAnd\u00a0follows\u00a0fearless\u00a0where\u00a0she\u00a0leads\u201d.<\/em>\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWhat\u00a0now\u00a0is\u00a0bud\u00a0will\u00a0soon\u00a0be\u00a0leaf,
\nWhat\u00a0now\u00a0is\u00a0leaf\u00a0will\u00a0soon\u00a0decay . . .\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n