Talking to the Dead E-Book

Elaine Feinstein

• Herausgeber: Carcanet Poetry
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Opening with a death in winter, this is a tender work of mourning which is wonderfully moving but never dispiriting. Elaine Feinstein uses the remembered words of a much-loved husband - sometimes affectionate, sometimes querulous - to invoke his solid presence; it is the man rather than her grief which is the centre of the book. Many lyrics recall the closeness of their last months together; others confess the ambivalence of a long marriage. Theirs was never an easy relationship, and she is not afraid to register the differences between them. With wry humour, she questions her own life before their meeting, and looks steadily at a future without him. As she imagines that future, she confronts the myths of an afterlife, a belief in God, her debts to other poets and her dependence on friends and children. Always in complete control of rhythm and tone, these beautiful lyrics explore the most intimate thoughts with a clarity and tenacity Ted Hughes once described as 'unique'. It is Elaine Feinstein's most passionate book of poetry.

Leseprobe

ELAINE FEINSTEIN

Talking to the Dead

In memory of Arnold Feinstein

Acknowledgements

Some of these poems have already appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, PN Review, Poetry London and Poetry Review.

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Winter

Bremerhaven

Home

A Visit

Hands

Beds

Unsent Email

Mackintosh

Fox

Moving House

Stuff

Rain

Hubble

Immortality

A Match

Skin

Flame

Another Anniversary

A Pebble on Your Grave

Widow’s Necklace

Father and Son: A dream

Guernica

Folk Song

Wittgenstein

Afghan

Restart

Variation on an Akhmatova Poem

January Trees

Marriage

Rosemary in Provence

Lazarus’s Sister

Lisson Grove

Separations

Bonds

Wheelchair

Living Room

Perugia

Old Poets

Letter to Ezra Pound

Common Sense

Seder

Scattering

Bruges

At the Heart of This Black World

Night Thoughts

London

About the Author

Also by Elaine Feinstein from Carcanet Press

Copyright

Winter

The clock’s gone back. The shop lights spill

over the wet street, these broken streaks

of traffic signals and white headlights fill

the afternoon. My thoughts are bleak.

I drive imagining you still at my side,

wanting to share the film I saw last night,

– of wartime separations, and the end

when an old married couple reunite –

You never did learn to talk and find the way

at the same time, your voice teases me.

Well, you’re right, I‘ve missed my turning,

and smile a moment at the memory,

always knowing you lie peaceful and curled

like an embryo under the squelchy ground,

without a birth to wait for, whirled

into that darkness where nothing is found.