I’ve been writing an essay on Darwin and metaphor and came across this entry from the ‘N’ notebook [Metaphysics and Expression] of 1838-39 (the line breaks are my own and the ellipses refer to a long break of text about Darwin’s children):
“Hope is the expectant eye.
looking to distant object, brightened
& moistened by emotion,–…
Expression of affection
is [...]
Tag Archive > Poetry
Darwin as poet 2
Interview on the Darwin Correspondence Project Website
I was interviewed this year by Dr. Paul White of the Darwin Correspondence Project for their website. Conducted in Cambridge, on the way back from the Sydney Writers’ Festival. You can listen to the interview on the website and also read the transcript (thanks to Sam Kuper).
I will also be reading next Wednesday Oct 28th [...]
Wallace to her Darwin
I wanted to see Ruth Padel speak at Edinburgh Writers’ Fest, but sadly parental commitments prohibited me at the last minute. I have been both curious and a bit tentative about meeting her, though I sent her an email proposing we should and she responded very sweetly to me. Two women poets with essentially the [...]
Edinburgh Festival in The List
Here’s a link to my event in The List magazine. I’m reading with Jen Hadfield, the T.S. Eliot poetry prizewinner featured here. Full details of our event are also listed below if you scroll down to August 17th, 4:30.
Polarbear and Evolving Words–Darwin200
Polarbear and Evolving Words–UK-based performance poet Polarbear has worked with local writers to create spoken word pieces about evolutionary theory. They’ll be performing on July 9th 8 p.m. at The Junction in Cambridge. This is part of Darwin200, a national (and frankly international) festival celebrating Charles Darwin and his ideas around the 200th anniversary of [...]
Poems as Archeology
I just received this poem from an old friend on my email. It is a poem I wrote, years ago, typed out on my typewriter and which she has kept for fifteen years. What a strange a precious object to receive, scanned against the stark white background of my email, worn and crinkled like an [...]
The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe
I attended the Colloquium on Charles Darwin in Europe at Christ’s College, Cambridge last week (to launch The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe, edited by Eve-Marie Engels and Thomas F. Glick), and read a few poems at the cocktail reception. It was a fascinating and personally thrilling day which included scholars from around the world [...]
Happy Birthday Charles Darwin
If I post this now, ten minutes to midnight on February 12, 2009, I can still officially say Happy Birthday. But then again I’m now in London, and in Australia, his birthday ended ten hours ago. I’ve just returned from the Natural History Museum’s Birthday Celebration, where the white marble statue of a be-seated Darwin [...]
Poems about Darwin’s Life
Well everything is getting crazy here as I finalise the last proof-pages of The Darwin Poems, my verse-portrait of Charles Darwin’s inner mind, work and life, in preparation for their publication the first week of April. It is late days to discover I have not entirely solved for myself my philosophy of the comma in poetry; [...]
Darwin’s Noah
Happy New Year 2009, the Bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth. I, for one, have not kept my promise to post a poem per week prior to his birthday, which is fast approaching–February 12th. I have also not managed to solve the problem of line spacing vis-a-vis blogging in a way that’s even remotely aesthetically pleasing [...]
