First thought: Thom Gunn, âThoughts on Unpackingâ. âI realise,â he ends, âthat love is an arranging.â No sooner thought, I think of another, cracking conclusion: âThe world might change⦠Change as our kisses are changing
without our thinking.â And then I think of âBreakfast Songâ, another Elizabeth Bishop poem weâre lucky to have in print. Of Derek Mahonâs âMonochromeâ. Of Seamus Heaneyâs âSkunkâ. Even Matt Healyâs âSomebody Elseâ (as good as Dylanâs âIdiot Windâ).
âTo My Wife at Midnightâ, Grahamâs best. âSleeping alone together,â he looks at her beside him, asleep in her âlonely
Analysis: while pandemic-era poetry uncovers the vulnerabilities of humanity, it also reminds us that disasters do end
Indian poet and essayist Arvind Krishna Mehrotra describes his experience of living in the pandemic era as follows. My sense of mortality is keener than ever. In my garden, I look at an unfamiliar sapling and wonder if I would ever find out its name. Mehrotra s keen sense of mortality and heightened attention to his surroundings also acts as the driving force behind for how many poets are addressing these times.
Recent writing from Irish poets has especially focused on the collective experience of the altered reality around us. While sensory information has been an essential source of inspiration for several generations of poets, pandemic-era poets portray the sensory with an exceptional vigilance.