October

The world being
praiseworthy
I went
and in the early morning
bought a pen.

Anja Konig

Next term’s series will take the theme of ‘the Muse’, looking at the different ways in which arts practitioners seek inspiration. Speakers include Antony Dunn, poet and dramatist, who will give a reading and workshop; and Dionysios Kyropoulos delivering a workshop on gesture on the Restoration stage.

I discovered this lovely poem this week, and it made me think of the many forms inspiration can take. Here, it’s not a specific instance or experience that has caught the poet’s eye, but rather the need to communicate joy. It is also a narrative poem: the speaker has motivation (the world is ‘praiseworthy’) and a goal (to write about it), so she kits herself out for the task with the purchase of the pen. It’s interesting that she doesn’t conclude with the act of writing – that she has written is evident in the fact of the poem’s existence – but she focusses instead on the tools required to make oneself heard. There is a hopeful practicality in this poem, which advocates action as a realisation of thought.