Friday 26 October 2012

Displacing the Wraith.

It’s mildly disconcerting to meet a person whose spirit has been usurped. And after wondering where the old one has gone, it’s even more disconcerting to find yourself being haunted only by its echo, and not the wraith itself. It’s then that you wonder whether your own spirit has been usurped - or has deserted you because it no longer finds a home there. It encourages reflection on the subtle innuendo contained in that line from a song I’m so fond of:

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet.

Reflection turns to more general questions of time and hour glasses and mortality and pointlessness. And then you carry on regardless, conscious of the fact that, being a poet who can’t write poetry, you read too much into things and it probably isn’t good for you.

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