According to Berryman, an American
born in Oklahoma as a consequence
of a miserable union between a feckless banker
and a schoolteacher who thought she deserved
better, Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian
from Copenhagen, wanted a society
that refused to read newspapers in order
to free themselves from nonsense. Stuff
and nonsense. I read elsewhere that
Wittgenstein, the Austrian, kept no books
because reading got in the way of thinking
Language, he concluded
is a toolkit not a calculus, and philosophy
is a therapy for exploring paradox. Paradox
and the various misunderstandings
which (inevitably) arise between us. The search
for unity will lead to madness, suicide, poetry
The Dream Songs
are Berryman’s defining achievement. He
jumped to his death from a bridge
that crossed the Mississippi River in 1972
.
Steven Taylor
.
Excellent poem.
Comment by Malcolm Paul on 10 December, 2024 at 10:17 am