READING THE POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY(1840-1928)

Approval and a shared sense of shame -

how on earth did he write this?

Why he allowed it to be published?

Why didn't he publish it 32 years earlier,

when he wrote it? Why

didn't he burn it? From high

achievement to low success,

from the pitiable flattery

of a dead German so long enthroned

to that merciless view of man in cosmos,

clear-eyed before the abyss

that devours all life;

and then these horrible stories in verse

crying out rebirth in prose -

mercy may be lacking in the universe,

but surely these deserved it! So

it goes; an artist sees the world and fate

bare, devoid of meaning,

but his own creations he sees

through the doting eyes of a proud demiurge;

all equal, the great and the small, no meritocracy this.

27.03.2018