In this episode you will hear Nicholas Laughlin talking about the poem that has been a friend to him - 'Proem' by Martin Carter.
Nicholas is one of our 'long distance' visitors and joined us via Skype, from Trinidad. Nicholas is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange team members, John Prebble and Andrea Witzke Slot, who were together in London for the conversation.
Our thanks to Bloodaxe Books Publishers for kindly granting us permission to use 'Proem'. Do visit them for further inspiration:
www.bloodaxebooks.com
You can discover more of Nicholas Laughlin's thoughts and writings here: http://nicholaslaughlin.net
'Proem' is read by both John and Andrea.
*****
Proem
by Martin Carter
Not, in the saying of you, are you
said. Baffled and like a root
stopped by a stone you turn back questioning
the tree you feed. But what the leaves hear
is not what the roots ask. Inexhaustibly,
being at one time what was to be said
and at another time what has been said
the saying of you remains the living of you
never to be said. But, enduring,
you change with the change that changes
and yet are not of the changing of any of you.
Ever yourself, you are always about
to be yourself in something else ever with me.
Martin Carter, University of Hunger: Collected Poems & Selected Prose, ed. Gemma Robinson
view more