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Monday, March 14, 2005

Ars Poetic (Czeslaw Milosz)

this is an audio post - click to play

A link to the text.

Brenda Schmidt's mention of buying a copy of Czeslaw Milosz's New and Collected Poems reminded me that I want to do at least one of his poems here.

Milosz, a Polish poet, died at the age of 93 on August 14, 2004. More about Milosz.

I'm not sure how much of 'Ars Poetica' I agree with. I'm pretty damn sure that I don't completely understand the poem. It seems to me to be about dignity and, perhaps, a responsibility inherent in consciousness or "sapience;" about the question of free will; about the place of the rational mind in the world; and about limits, boundaries, and how to go beyond them. But none of that seems to matter. I just like the poem as it is.

2 comments:

Brenda Schmidt said...

Fine reading, John.

This book will keep me occupied for a very long time.

John said...

Yeah, I've come very close twice to buying. Someday it will fit the budget (I use that word loosely).