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The Silence

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The title poem of John Greening's The Silence is a meditation on Sibelius and the thirty years he spent grappling with an eighth symphony that he eventually burned. The poem is emblematic of a broader concern with the mystery of the creative process, explored in the work of other artists but also grappled with first-hand, in the composition of poems. Death, that most emphatic of silences, is a recurring theme; but so too is the bright potentiality of the unknown, the beyond. A tribute to the late Dennis O'Driscoll is, among other things, a bold meditation on hope. Elsewhere, Greening visits the Peak District, the Ancient Egypt of Nebamun, Sibelius's Finland, and the vanished settlements beneath Heathrow Airport, listening to the strange music each place contains. Along the way are poems on trees, penny coins, Hilliard miniatures, a coal bunker, a totem pole, the X5 bus route, and migrating geese.
John Greening is a poet, critic and editor who has spent much of his life teaching adults and young people — in Scotland, the USA, and Cambridgeshire. He writes about the intimate relationship between everyday life and historical worlds. He has composed poems about Egypt, the Norse gods, polar exploration, and various historical figures. As noted by reviewer Tim Dooley in Times Literary Supplement, "Greening's poems can offer lyrical graces as well as psychological or political perspectives." He found much of the inspiration for his work through his travels in Germany, the United States, and Egypt.
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