Aw, thanks Maureen! I wasn’t sure if many people would get the connection, but
thought some might. G;ad you found resonance in my poem.
Giannis is John in Greek, and it refers to the St John you’re familiar with.
St John the Theologian is his official title is in Greece. That was just me
playing with the name because I wanted to bring some aspect of the Greekness
even if only a little.
Thanks so much for your feedback, much appreciated.
Also appreciate your keeping our emails threads in such good order! Never
apologise for your OCDs!!
wxx
On 26 Jan 2019, at 5:05 pm, Maureen Sexton (Redacted sender "maureensexton"
for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi
I am going to put all my feedback in one document and send it then, but I
wanted to respond now as well. I hope that's okay.
Cheers Maureen
Hi Wahibe
Wow! I read your poem out loud and loved it! At first I thought the layout
would make it difficult to read, but I was wrong. It was perfect. It’s a very
powerful poem and one I relate to very well, even though there were a couple
of things I didn’t understand.
I tried to google Giannis the Theologian but only came up with Gianni, the
basketball player and Gianni Vattimo, the philosopher who seemed to develop
his philosophy from Nietzsche. But I decided it didn’t really matter, because
I could relate to and understand the poem without that knowledge. I grew up
with teachings from the book of John - Revelations, and the Apocalypse. I
don’t follow any religion at all now and don’t believe in god, but I can
relate to the inbuilt fear and shame.
I loved the lines ”I’ll face that unholy beast that drove my kidself
crazy/I’ll look St John in the eyes I’ll tell him:/ thanks for passing on
your anxiety attack mate/it took half my life to shrug that monkey off but I
did it” I had to do it too. I found this very strong, powerful and emotive.
I also loved the following: “as always my eyes/swivelling taking/everything
in at once/ my heart on fullpump/apokalypsis a-llypsis... a-poker-lyps
calypso/lyp-so-matic lips/slips/lyp-somatic
a-poker-lip-tick/lip-tickle/poker-lip” I could feel the anxiety, the heart
pumping!
I also loved “I went to tell old/Giannis the Theologian what I thought of him
thank him for investing a defenceless/child with his hell benumbered
monsters” Yes Revelations reads like a horror story!
And yes, “there's no shame in tears/it said be glad you have them”
Great poem!
Maureen x
Maureen Sexton
0435024616
maureensexton@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:maureensexton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
'The haiku has this rather fantasmagorical property: that we always suppose
we ourselves can write such things easily.' Roland Barthes
LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT A PENCIL
