Poetspeak: a self-reflection
by NELL GREY
| Poem: | Enlightenment | |
| Published in: | Obsessed with Pipework., #30.5 |
Enlightenment is one of a series of poems inspired by a set of etchings I made a few years ago. It arrived on the page small but beautifully formed – one of the rare and lovely times that a poem has seemed to write itself.
In dreams... slipped into my mind and the rest of the poem followed without thought, almost like automatic writing. For me it goes a little way towards describing that sense of revelation one often experiences in dreams and the total acceptance of the truth of that glimpse no matter how extraordinary it seems on waking.
I feel also a deep resonance with the mystical, majestic and knowing tiger of the eighteen century visionary artist and poet William Blake, … burning bright, in the forests of the night… as if in dreams, just for the blink of an eye, one could melt into that … fearful symmetry … and learn the answers to the questions Blake poses in his great poem, Tyger! Tyger!
Enlightenment was one of a batch of poems submitted to the poetry magazine Obsessed with Pipework. The editor, Charles Johnson, is wonderful to work with and will sometimes suggest a small revision if needed. The turn-around time is good too and the magazine itself always surprises. No revisions were needed for Enlightenment however – it slipped between the covers of the magazine as easily as it came into being. If only it were always so easy…
Nell Grey was brought up in the South of England. Her dream from
an early age was to become an artist and writer, and having spent
most of her life achieving the first objective, exhibiting with The Society
of Women Artists, The National Acrylic Painters Association
and other societies, published her first novel, Solitary Pleasures , in 2003.
She lives in Sussex, and is the author of The Golden Web triology. A lifelong
fascination with mythology and the origins of religion led to the writing of Golden Web,
and she has recently completed illustrations for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám,
a long cherished dream: http://www.nellgrey.co.uk/