Monday, July 02, 2007

Palindrome

Following recent accusations that this blog is only used as a displacement activity to get me away from my real work, here is a counterexample: a palindrome composed by W.H Auden about T.S. Eliot.

'T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot toilet.'

However, looking for this on the internet was in itself displacement activity, especially as it led me to the great work by Francis Heaney, Holy Tango of Literature, a collection of poems which wonders why poets never wrote works whose titles were anagrams of their own names. The following is an extract, and perhaps a partial answer.

'I Will Alarm Islamic Owls' by William Carlos Williams

I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn

and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah

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