David Selzer

BIRTHDAY GIRL UNDER HOUSE ARREST

By David Selzer February 25, 2021 In Poetry 6 'It takes a village to raise a child', gurning

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ YORUBA PROVERB

The rest of us are dressed for January’s

damp chill but she greets us on the driveway in

cool boots, black tights, black skirt, white shirt, and red cloak

Grandma has made for TikTok performances.

She smiles briefly, then gurns. A homemade cake

is brought carefully through the front door,

with candles blazing, duly blown out.

We sing the song, and mark her eleven years

upon the earth. She is lovely,

A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION

By David Selzer February 25, 2021 In Poetry 5 'Bless the Bride'. 'This is my lovely day', L'Education Sentimentale

In a local church hall we wait, with fellow

ancients, for our first Pfizer vaccination.

Ours is a generation that has received,

since childhood, the blessings of technology

and science. Though the glitter ball

is stationary and the stage curtains drawn

there are shades still of dancing and pantomimes –

and, in the observation tent outside,

the fifteen minutes is quite jolly,

definitely determined. We humans are

social animals, prone to good causes.

We drive home in warm,

LOCKDOWN

By David Selzer February 25, 2021 In Poetry 3 'coughs 'n sneezes spread diseases', lockdown American penal term

For Fikekahle Dlalisa

The casual use of an American

penal term as a figurative cliché

suggests our usual status quo is being

in some sort of custody. In consequence

the clamour of public nonsense rises

about the nature and scope of liberty.

Freedom is choice not action. Walking

with a Zulu friend in a busy mall

on the edge of Soweto, “Look,” he said,

“see how people do not crowd each other,

HINDSIGHT

By David Selzer February 25, 2021 In Poetry 2 Hitler, Kolyma

From Moscow to London, Stockholm to Venice

the world froze at 10, 12, 15 below

for three months. Wine froze in bottles, cows in byres,

and wolves came down to villages scavenging.

Tree trunks shattered. Church bells once rung fractured.

Travellers crossed the Baltic on horse-back,

skaters glided under the Rialto.

The War of Spanish Succession was paused

for more clement weather – and regiments

of Swedish soldiers died in Russian blizzards,

ceding victory in the Great Northern War

to Peter the Great almost by default.

SUN SETTING ON A WINTER’S DAY

By David Selzer February 25, 2021 In Poetry 1 allegory, dee estuary

Streaks of greyish cloud above the lovat hills

on the far shore attenuate the sunset

with striations of orange and yellow.

For a moment clouds part, and the sun

radiates a shearing silver like some

Turner landscape, or Wagnerian

allegory. And, as if on cue,

with a suddenness that shocks, amazes,

from the hidden lagoons amongst the reeds,

multiple flocks of geese rise calling, flying

towards the river’s mouth, fluttering shadows

receding into dark.

YOUNG VOICES CONCERT, MANCHESTER, JANUARY 2020

By David Selzer January 28, 2021 In Poetry 3 Manchester Arena, Ode to Joy

The Arena has become an aviary.

As we walk along the narrow corridor

into the auditorium, the sound

of eight and half thousand young voices

all chattering simultaneously

with wonder overwhelms us like a blast

of tropical heat, like a wall of bird song.

The music starts, the house lights go down.

In unison, as they begin to sing

‘Ode to Joy’, each one of the thousands

of song birds switches on a white, bright beam,

which shimmers and waves,

All Posts By David Selzer

David Selzer

BIRTHDAY GIRL UNDER HOUSE ARREST

A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION

LOCKDOWN

HINDSIGHT

SUN SETTING ON A WINTER’S DAY

YOUNG VOICES CONCERT, MANCHESTER, JANUARY 2020

David Selzer

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HINDSIGHT

A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION

ON FIRST READING ‘THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO’

A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION

BIRTHDAY GIRL UNDER HOUSE ARREST