8 days into my year long daily Literature project. After my first week of this particular project I have to confess that it is not as easy as I thought, it is becoming personal, a penetrating unmasking of myself which I had not bargained for! I think this is something to do with the process of pairing my photographs with poetry both of which are for me self-revealing and self-affecting genres. Today, for example, I pair a photograph of a dead Allium head with a Sassoon poem both of which in their own ways evoke in me an emotional response but when combined go very deep indeed. As I said "penetrating".
Hero by Siegfried Sassoon.
'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the Mother said,
And folded up the letter that she'd read.
'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.
Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt.
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair.
