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Uncommon Measures #2: @ Christmas, with David Benjamin Blower A second installment of the Uncommon Measures poetry series draws on the words of DBB choice, Isaac the Syrian

Uncommon Measures #2: @ Christmas, with David Benjamin Blower

A second installment of the Uncommon Measures poetry series draws on the words of DBB choice, Isaac the Syrian

by Duncan Jones, Poet in Residence
first published: December, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

This is thesecond of a series – Uncommon Measures – looking at poetry that doesn’t fit, that makes the eyes shiver and the brain itch, which is to say the good stuff.

Dunan Jones: The season’s upon us like some lecherous alky uncle. We’re looking ahead to days of tinsellated shatbot bonhomie and sugar coated malaise. Yet that is by no means the whole business. There’s something else David Benjamin Blower draws our attention to; something afire about 1,300 years ago and the flames are still visible. From poverty, abundance and untrammelled life.

David Benjamin Blower: I’m not actually sure if this is a poem. These are the words of Isaac the Syrian from the seventh century. He was a hermit who lived years in solitude eating bread and raw vegetables.

In any case, it reads like a poem and so I’ve always read it like a poem. I have a fancy that if you live alone for years, eating just bread and plants, at some point everything you say becomes a poem, and every poem becomes a prayer.

It was the Nazi theorist, Carl Schmitt who said that all politics comes down to the friend/enemy distinction. I’m not sure the present landscape is managing to prove him wrong; not at any end of the weary spectrum.

Perhaps Isaac’s poem isn’t politics. But, also, perhaps it is politics. I would like to live as though it was. It turns on a tap in my body. It also disturbs my edges. I’ll happily take it as the starting point for everything.

Merry Christmas

* * *

What is a merciful heart?

It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation,

for humanity,

for the birds,

for the animals,

for demons,

and for every created thing.

And at the recollection and sight of them, the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance.

By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation.

* * *

David Benjamin Blower is a poet, podcaster, musician and theologian living round our way.
His latest book The Messianic Commons: Images of the Messiah after Modernity has just been published

More information available here(s)
David;s Music on Bandcamp
Substack Podcast
David's website

Duncan Jones
Poet in Residence

Duncan has lived and worked in Birmingham for over forty years. He does things with words and pictures.


about Duncan Jones »»

upcoming interviews begin with the Residents Feb 9th

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