This week I've been staying with a family friend in the remote village of Episkepsi, here in the North of Corfu. The week has seen me exploring castles, monasteries, olive groves and dipping my feet into the world of classic Greek poetry. Does it get much better than this?
For this month's poem, I thought I'd implore you all to read T. S. Eliot's sublime Little Gidding. You may want to make yourself a brew first as it's rather epic.
Here are some killer lines from the rich masterpiece:
The soul's sap quivers • Where is the summer, the unimaginable zero summer? • Last season's fruit is eaten. And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail. For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. • Fools' approval stings, and honour stains. • Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar name behind the hands that wove the intolerable shirt of flame which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire consumed by either fire or fire. • What we call the beginning is often the end... and to make an end is to make a beginning.
Jump into September...
