"The Beloved"
The poet Pablo Neruda begins one of his later poems with the phrase: "I have seen other things, perhaps nothing..." I have always liked this because of course my own experience of seeing has been provisional and difficult. Like most blind people who have what is called "residual vision" I see shapes and colors and I hope to translate these sensations into sense or beauty as I go about my daily rounds.
As this year draws to an end and the talking heads on TV are predictably revisiting the public tragedies and the lurid celebrity gossip of 2006, I want to urge readers of this blog to buy and read a book length collection of poems by Gregory Orr entitled Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved.
The "book" is art of course. It's also the body we long for. It's also the place where love remains possible. It is the supreme gift from the gods for human reason resides in the book. Transcendence and immaterial vision lives in the book. The realized eschatology of poetry is this body of consciousness. This is what's meant by "the Beloved" and no, you won't find this on Fox news. (Here's hoping that this year Bill O'Reilly is replaced by a poetry show hosted by a beautiful elder like Donald Hall...)
If you are looking for poetry that explores the consciousness we have and the consciousness we long for, then this is the best book you can read as this year draws to its close. This is a ritual reading. Greg Orr is surely one of the finest poets of our age.
SK
Blogs sharing poems by Gegory Orr:
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