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The Mystery of Faith
Why wouldn’t you said Geraldine
counting on the fingers of both hands
unsettling the balance of equations
prodding the smooth surfaces
with which power coats itself
Glory to Monk in the highest
And chanting at the top of her voice
disrupting authoritative rhythms
of reference and citation
On earth poetry to people of good will
Distributing tension through performance
letting loose the irritation
that falls like the dust of fairies
as authority seeks firm ground to stand on
I believe in Monk
maker of poems
and why wouldn’t you
undercut when authority repeats the names
that give it stability and why not,
articulate in return in such a way that power
cannot sustain itself
From the dust she lifts up the lowly
From the dungheap she raises the poor
To set them in the company of princes
[Ian Davidson’s most recent poetry publications are New and Selected Poems (Shearsman 2022) From a Council House in Connacht (Oystercatcher 2021) and By Tiny Twisting Ways (Aquifer 2021). Current work can also be found in Plumwood Mountain, Black Box Manifold, Tears in the Fence and the Long Poem Magazine. Critical writing includes monographs and articles on ideas of space and mobility in modern and contemporary poetry with recent essays considering the work of Diane di Prima, Bill Griffiths, Tom Pickard, Lenore Kandel, Rhys Trimble and Leslie Harrison. Brought up in Wales, where he spent much of his life, he now lives on a small farm in Mayo, Ireland. He is Professor of Poetry in University College Dublin.]
Copyright © 2022 by Ian Davidson, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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