'The poet speaks to all'

 

“The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.” –  Edith Sitwell

Born in Britain on Sept. 7, 1867 Sitwell was both a patron of the writing and art worlds and a critic and noted poet herself.  She started writing while still in grammar school and had her first poem, The Drowned Suns, published in London’s Daily Mirror in 1913.   A patron of rising young poets like Dylan Thomas she also authored hundreds of poems, many of which remain popular and several that have been set to music. 

For Saturday’s Poem, here is Sitwell’s

                                             Answers

                            I kept my answers small and kept them near;
                            Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
                            Small answers be a bullwark to my fear.

                            The huge abstractions I kept from the light;
                            Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
                            I let the stars assume the whole of night.

                            But the big answers clamored to be moved

                            Into my life. Their great audacity
                            Shouted to be acknowledged and believed.

                            Even when all small answers build up to
                            Protection of my spirit, still I hear
                            Big answers striving for their overthrow.

                            And all the great conclusions coming near.