After reading over these lines written by Etel Adnan two or three times and reflecting on them
the more I was in awe of their summation of the times we are living in --
While some gardener plants his
red, white, and blue
flowers
some angel moved in with me
to flee the cold and warned me
temperatures on earth
are rising
while we wear upon us some
immovable frost
and, in sadness,
everyone carries his dying as
a growing shadow.
from The Spring Flowers Own:
“This unfinished business of my / childhood”
“This unfinished business of my / childhood”
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| Etel Adnan 1925-2021 |
Adnan taught philosophy at San Rafael’s Dominican College from 1958 to 1972, where, in connection with the ongoing Algerian war of independence, she began to resist the political implications of writing in French. To address this conflict, she shifted the focus of her creative expression to visual art and began making abstract oil paintings. In response to the Vietnam War, Adnan began to write poems again, though in English rather than French.
I am not at the mercy of men
Who can explain?
which carry my desires
away to the oceans.
Influenced by Rimbaud, Lyn Hejinian, and Jalal Toufic, Adnan’s poetry incorporates surrealist imagery and powerful metaphorical leaps with language-based and formal experimentation, using unexpected and experimental techniques to address the nature of exile and political, social, and gender-based injustice. Adnan is the author of numerous books of prose and poetry, and is also a painter, sculptor, and weaver whose art has been exhibited internationally. Her many collections of poetry include Shifting the Silence (2020); Time (2019), winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize; Surge(2018); Night (2016); Seasons (2008); There: In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and the Other (1997).
She lived in Sausalito California and in Paris with her partner, the artist and writer Simone Fattal. Adnan died in November 2021.
During the War in Iraq and as her own Kurdish people's
plight dominated the News she began to receive international notice as her
poems were translated and published globally. The
English-language Handful of Salt, a translated collection, was released in 2016.
Her writings reflect her
commitment to preserving Kurdish culture, the liberation of Kurdistan and to
gender equality.
An excerpt from
In This Country of Terror
I Love the Streets More Than Its Men
they killed so unjustly.
I challenge you to read the entire poem and not sense her inner pain and anguish.
In addition to writing poetry, she also works as a journalist where she is able
to write social commentary and analysis, particularly on women's issues and
politics. She refuses to wear the
veil and writes about a conservative culture that restricts women's life
choices and the contradictions inherent in her homeland's cultural norms.
Because of this, Kajal's lifestyle has repeatedly drawn criticism in
conservative circles of her society.
The following poem of hers made me think of this current era I am witnessing - one where Lies are spun into Truth, and former Truths are now Lies. Where our heroes and great men of yesterday are, today, gleefully insulted by small men pretending to be great, stupid men with no honorable past brought to prominence by ego-hungry social media influencers who praise dictators. With their warped views on history the sheep who follow these men lead us on the frightening journey toward the inevitable repeating of the past.
 |
| Steel engraving of Walt Whitman |
"Song of Myself"
[Read about the poem's history]
Walt Whitman
is considered one of the most influential poets in American history.
Whitman is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
"Song of Myself" was included in that collection.
_____________
I exist as I am, that is enough,
I sit content,
I sit content.
whether I come to my own to-day
or in ten thousand or ten million years,
or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
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