Nows and Forevers

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/15/plague-poems-defiant-wit-and-penis-puns-why-john-donne-is-a-poet-for-our-times?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR0L2GcS1m_lQv3CKViZSLwaKEEWzPBAP6uOv7p_SbVJjT3pQ6dVtMsHsNc

I have my Westbrook (Connecticut) High School English teacher Jan Hart to thank for introducing me to John Donne, as she introduced me to so much of value in my junior year of high school. Donne has followed me ever since, whether it’s lines of his poetry I read from time to time, the title of Robert B. Parker Spenser book, and other stops along the way, and trying to see London through Donnie’s eyes, all the way to here, where I clicked this essay.

Makes me miss Donne, and Mrs. Hart, who died too young, all over again.

I recommend this whole essay: “The pleasures of Donne are akin to the pleasures of cracking a safe: there is gold inside. And besides, why should it be easy? Very little that is worth having is easy.”

I’ve kind of sworn off English-language books for the couple of years to focus on Welsh, but this book, “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne,” by Katherine Rundell, is on my list now that I’m back to my native tongue again.