Elaine Feinstein’s latest book, The Clinic, Memory: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet, £14.99), offers rich insights into this distinguished writer’s world and preoccupations.
One of her recent poems, below, tackles with typical humanity, and historical parallels, the current refugee problem in Europe.
THE NEWS CHANNEL
Shall we listen to the news?
~
In the little streets which smell of chocolate
round the Golden Square in Brussels
there are armed police
What news. There is no news.
~
Once I inherited fear in the stories of
borders and slippery mud on river banks,
bribes and guards and angry dogs.
~
Now we watch on household screens
as fences of razor wire cross
quiet European fields.
~
When my grandfather spoke of Odessa
He remembered the music in street cafes,
Acacia trees, and summertime on Deribasovskaya.
~
In tents across Europe now they remember Syria:
The ancient stone, the grand restaurants.
~
My grandfather did not want to serve
in the hated Tsar’s army – these men too
are sick of a long war and carry children
~
but we are afraid of them
because they are numerous.
~
What news. There is no news.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article