THE SONG OF SELF
THE SONG OF SELF
It's dangerous to enjoy sitting it out, while everything
We assume is going on just continues: kept calm
And/or crazed in our houses, partially visible lines
Reshape place. Everything will no doubt look the same,
Should the day actually come that we see it,
But perhaps a fresh filter on a once familiar strain
Can be traced.
Now, some creatives relax
And get on with their writings and paintings;
Music moves the moment and scores new thoughts
On dance as we’re stilled, while some fall, ill-graced,
Removed from their own motivations, but perhaps
In that, there’s true value, as creating, or not,
There’s still will. Perhaps it is not enough
Just to write at this particular moment: as afterall,
What comes after is the question each of us now
Must ask. It isn’t simply the day that contains
Our new mission but what the day does by dying
And rising again. That’s the task.
I am writing myself with my own sense of vigour,
But in doing so I am wary, as who will want to read
Or hear David’s Covid and the test of Covid 19
Once its passed? Having lived through it, all will want
To define the new twenties, and my own attempts
At recording will be like an old VHS, paused at last.
Something for only dust to seduce, now that the shelf
Itself has been archived, with Video also murdered
Alongside its victim, the former ‘Radio Star.’
Nobody recalls Betamax as all of us Alphamaxines
Enter crisis. Technology tamed us but as it connects
And hope sparks, we will just have to measure events
And not get to insular as we do so. Events bloom
Like poems, breaking through pavement and page,
Whisper, screen. And yet relevance has no rhyme
When everything calls to chaos. Remember that:
Private passions do not always contain common dreams.
It is by being careful, we’ll win while setting down
Our impressions. But it is upto us to shape features
And futures too, as THEY sheme.
Who are THEY?
Who knows?
All I want to say is, keep asking.
It is not of the self I am singing
But of the air we own.
That’s my theme.
David Erdos April 11th 2020
For more poems from David Erdos visit The Corona Diaries collection
David Erdos is an actor, writer, director with over 300 professional credits. He is a published poet, playwright, essayist and illustrator. He has lectured on all disciplines in theatre and film for leading performing arts colleges, schools and universities around the world. His books include EASY VERSES FOR DIFFICULT TIMES, THE SCAR ON THE CLOUD, OIL ON SILVER, NEWS FROM MARS, CHANGING PLACES WITH LIGHT (penniless press) and BYZANTIUM with the photographer Max Reeves. He is a contributing editor for The International Times and maker of documentaries all over the world. David’s work has been acclaimed by many leading figures including Harold Pinter, Heathcote Williams, Alan Moore, Andrew Kotting, Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair in whose recent book THE LAST LONDON, David features. He can be reached at David.erdos@sky.com.
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David Erdos
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© David Erdos has asserted his moral rights as author of his work and has full copyright.
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