Storm Song
July 5, 2023A Poet’s Thought
July 5, 2023On the Fly-Leaf of Pound’s Cantos
There are the Alps. What is there to say about them?
They don’t make sense. Fatal glaciers, crags cranks climb,
jumbled boulder and weed, pasture and boulder, scree,
et l’on entend, maybe, le refrain joyeux et leger.
Who knows what the ice will have scraped on the rock it is smoothing?
There they are, you will have to go a long way round
if you want to avoid them.
It takes some getting used to. There are the Alps,
fools! Sit down and wait for them to crumble!
Basil Bunting
Basil Bunting (1900-1985) was a British modernist poet, known for his lyric poetry and his translations of classical works, including "The Odyssey." He was associated with the literary movement known as the "Objectivists."