Image from poet John Siddique's website - check out his work.  

My First-Ever Blog Post

I just ran across this... an old Culture Diary entry on poet John Siddique's blog.  My first.  Kinda got me hooked on this blogging thing.

New Poetry

British poet John Siddique has a new book out - Full Blood.  Ours is one of those blogging-acquaintances where we've never actually met in, you know, person, but he seems cool even virtually.  Anyway, here's a poem from the book that I really like:

Thirst
Imagine thirst without knowing water.
And you ask me what freedom means.
Imagine love without love.
 
Some things are unthinkable,
until one day the unthinkable is here.
Imagine thirst without knowing water.
 
Some things we assume just are as they are,
no action is taken to make or sustain them.
Imagine love without love.
 
It is fear that eats the heart: fear and
endless talk, and not risking a step.
Imagine thirst without knowing water.
 
Fold away your beautiful thoughts.
Talk away curiosity, chatter away truth.
Imagine love without love.
 
Imagine believing in the whispers,
the screams and the gossip. Dancing to a tune
with no song to sing inside you.
Imagine love without love.
 

© John Siddique 2011
from Full Blood (Salt Publishing, 2011).