{"id":454,"date":"2020-10-19T08:41:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T06:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=454"},"modified":"2020-10-19T09:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T07:52:20","slug":"the-power-that-being-changed-can-give","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"The Power That Being Changed Can Give"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kim has split up from her partner. She told me of this sad development when we were the first ones to come online at the weekly editorial meeting. \u2018She\u2019s run off to pastures new,\u2019 was the way Kim put it.<\/p>\n

Kim and I know one another\u2019s views on poetry; we inhabit the same corner of the academic universe, but we\u2019ve never actually met. Her remark about pastures new did rather shake up at least one basic assumption I had had about her. I had supposed that her partner was a man.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m sorry to hear that,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

As far as I can gather, the relationship was relatively short (though this, no doubt, is not much consolation to the partner who\u2019s been abandoned).<\/p>\n

There was a pause as I contemplated the likelihood that my minimalist response may have conveyed more surprise than solidarity. Then I asked, \u2018What\u2019s Mat short for?\u2019<\/p>\n

The inanity of the question struck me only after it had been asked (as is so often the case).<\/p>\n

Kim was patient. \u2018Mattea,\u2019 she said. \u2018Her family is Italian.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

Since the question had been inane, the monosyllabic response to the answer may have been apt.<\/p>\n

Kim is short for Kimiko, and Kimiko is actively engaged, as a poet and an academic, with the Japanese-American experience. I had assumed that Mat stood for Matsuo or Matabei or something along those lines.<\/p>\n

So, wrong on another account.<\/p>\n

\u2018Other fish in the sea?\u2019 I asked hopefully.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really very good at this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Kim ignored the question. \u2018It has put me in mind of Larkin,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t suppose a domestic rift would put most people in mind of a Larkin \u2013 the poet, Philip, or any other Larkin, for that matter. \u2018How so?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a little melodramatic, but I\u2019ve always been fond of An Arundel Tomb<\/em>,\u2019 Kim said. \u2018Those lines about the passage of time \u2013 And up the paths \/ The endless altered people came<\/em> \u2013 the people who visit the mediaeval tomb where the lovers hold hands. You remember the line at the end: What will survive of us is love<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s comforting,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s more than comforting,\u2019 Kim replied, rather sharply.<\/p>\n

I was, I realised, being an absolutely inadequate shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a harder edge to Larkin,\u2019 she continued. \u2018More realism, that\u2019s why it works. The beauty comes amid bleakness.\u2019<\/p>\n

I suppose if professors of poetry have to justify the utility of their profession it must surely involve the facility with which, in the midst of day-to-day misfortune, emotional and philosophical insights are always to hand.<\/p>\n

\u2018He isn\u2019t sentimental,\u2019 she said. \u2018He\u2019s rather harsh. He speaks, you\u2019ll remember, of girls \/ In parodies of fashion<\/em>, and mothers loud and fat<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The Whitsun Weddings,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, and after he paints an unflattering portrait of tasteless wedding parties, he speaks about all the power \/ That being changed can give.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Yes!\u2019 I said \u2013 clearly, Larkin was better at this sort of thing than me. I gathered that Kim was referring (with commendable fortitude) to the possibilities of the future, post-Mat.<\/p>\n

\u2018A sense of falling, like an arrow shower,<\/em>\u2019 she continued, \u2018Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018All things must change,\u2019 I said, \u2018sometimes for the better.\u2019<\/p>\n

I fear I have shocked you, Kim, said.<\/p>\n

I had been found out. Considering now the presumption and ease with which I had entirely misunderstood fundamental and important aspects of a colleague\u2019s life, I was a little ashamed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Am I late?\u2019 Dimitri asked. He emerged beaming onto the screen, first his walrus moustache and then the rest of him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes you are!\u2019 Kim teased. \u2018We were discussing Larkin. I know he\u2019s a favourite of yours.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Larkin?\u2019 the voice was Rami\u2019s. Her picture came up as a postage stamp and then expanded. \u2018I\u2019ve always been a fan.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No!\u2019 Patrice has a way of investing even monosyllables with gallic panache. His mugshot took its place in the top right-hand corner of the screen. \u2018Larkin is rather pass\u00e9 and much too British \u2013 and there\u2019s a touch of bigotry too.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No doubt,\u2019 I said, \u2018but flawed assumptions aren\u2019t limited to time or place. We\u2019re all guilty. Aren\u2019t we?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, Albus,\u2019 Kim said gently, \u2018remember the power that being changed can give!\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine. Kim has split up from her partner. She told me of this sad development when we were the first ones to come online at the weekly editorial meeting. \u2018She\u2019s run off to pastures new,\u2019 was the way Kim put it. Kim and I know one another\u2019s views on poetry; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[116],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}